Albert and Allen Hughes return with 'Book of Eli'

ALBUQUERQUE — Their last big feature was "From Hell," a gory and gothic period piece that starred a pre-"Pirates" Johnny Depp as an eccentric and slightly unbalanced investigator chasing Jack the Ripper through the rain-slick cobblestone streets of 19th century London. The 2001 film met mixed reviews and middling box office, and not long after that, Albert and Allen Hughes, once considered two of the more urgent and authentic voices in Hollywood, seemed to disappear.

What happened?

"We took a twin sabbatical," Allen Hughes says, laughing deeply. He sits in his second floor office at Albuquerque Studios. Behind him the January sun sets on low hills , casting lovely pastels. Allen's twin brother, Albert, is downstairs poring over a shot list.

The Hughes Brothers are five days from starting principal photography on "The Book of Eli," a $70-million post-apocalyptic western they are directing. The movie, scheduled to hit theaters in early 2010, stars Denzel Washington as the lone hero walking westward, carrying with him a book with the secrets for saving humanity. The film is being shot in New Mexico for its ethereal desert landscapes.

But before he gets into the new film, Allen wants to set the record straight about where they've been. "It got blown out of proportion," he says, a little annoyed. "Someone told me that [my brother and I] got in a fistfight. I heard all these crazy rumors, and it just got worse and worse and worse."

Though there was no single blowout, issues over girlfriends temporarily fractured their fraternal bond. Albert and Allen Hughes simply needed to grow up and apart, as they tell it. From 2004 to 2007, the inseparable brothers carved out separate lives -- Allen in a suburb east of Los Angeles, Albert in Prague, Czech Republic, where they shot "From Hell." They would come together to do television projects or commercials for Nike, Heineken, Ford and other high-end clients. But trying to find work on another big-budget feature would have to wait.

It was a matter of finding the right script, getting over their personal and creative tensions, and then reselling themselves to Hollywood -- no small tasks. After all, it's hard getting back into the warm embrace of studio executives when you've been mysteriously off the radar, even if you did come out of the gate at 20 years old with the success that was 1993's "Menace II Society."