What appears to be the first official image of Jonah Hex is now with us… and it looks quite a bit like a costume or makeup test. Amusingly, it shows off Hex’s mussed-up face rather well, but hides his eyes under his hat brim. This is not the standard tease for things like this. Check it out after the break.

Jonah Hex is the first live action film to be directed by Jimmy Hayward, a one time Pixar animator who was later responsible for Blue Sky’s Horton Hears a Who. It seems that he was virtually hand picked for the job by the star, Josh Brolin.Here’s the image, as seen at Omelete.

I’m thinking that the casual attitude and easy reveal of Hex’s scarred face is due to him being a largely unknown character. For one thing, who would already know he’s disfigured like this in the first place if part of his face was hidden? Who has even heard of Jonah Hex? This image establishes his look very clearly, pushing a selling point of this particular character to those audiences who are yet to meet him.

Here’s a teaser poster for the film, again showcasing the scarring but also featuring Megan Fox in extravagant frilliness as Leila. In Neveldine and Taylor’s original script she was introduced as being in her “early 30s, dark hair falling over dark eyes; a damaged beauty…wearing lace panties, nothing else.” I bet you can spot the two elements of that which will be different in the finished film from a mile a way.

Incidentally, just two lines down in the script it says:

JONAH is standing there, hat down over his eyes.

I guess that’s his thing, the moody beggar.

Jonah Hex is still a long way from hitting cinemas with its current release date chalked up as August 10th, 2010.

For a more brightly lit look at Hex, there are some old set pictures to peruse.