It's hard not to get excited about any given John Malkovich role-- even when I saw him for about five minutes in the ridiculously awful Mutant Chronicles, I was happy to have him. But the role he's signed up to play in Jonah Hex sounds particularly amazing. Variety is reporting that Malkovich will star opposite Josh Brolin as Turnbull, a Southern plantation owner who blames former Confederate soldier Jonah for his son's death. Brolin is already perfectly suited to his role, but with Malkovich as his nemesis, there's no limit to how crazy and amazing this can get.

Production begins in April, and I'm so hoping that we'll see some behind-the-scenes images of Malkovich done up like Colonel Sanders or some such. Because Malkovich is a good actor in general, but he's pretty damn great at the slight caricature, at taking things just a wee bit over the top. And with the Crank screenwriters Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor behind it, you can pretty much guarantee that over the top will be part of the game. Can't wait.