Hellboy by Neil Marshall, released in 2019, is broadcast this Sunday on NRJ12. Is a sequel planned?
In 2019, Neil Marshall – director of the acclaimed The Descent – directed Hellboy, a reboot of the cult saga by Guillermo del Toro (2004 and 2008). In this new adaptation of Mike Mignola’s comics, David Harbor (Stranger Things) plays the anti-hero and succeeds Ron Perlman.
In this version, set in London, Hellboy must face a powerful demon who has returned from the dead to wreak his vengeance.
Big flop at the box office
With an estimated budget of $50 million, the feature film released in theaters in May 2019 only grossed $55 million at the international box office. For comparison, the first film directed by Perlman had grossed $99 million for a budget of $66 million and the sequel Hellboy II: The Legions of Doom had totaled 168 million greenbacks for a budget of $85 million.
A real flop for Lionsgate which decides to cut costs and not launch into a sequel. While promoting the 2022 action film Violent Night, David Harbor discusses the disappointing results of his Hellboy on the microphone of Variety : “It taught me not to mess around with well-established licenses! Don’t mess with what the audience already likes, that’s what I took away from this experience.”
Metropolitan FilmExport David Harbor as Hellboy
He adds : “Stranger Things Or Violent Night are original works, so people can judge it when they see it. They have no objects of comparison. This is what I find most difficult with existing licenses.“
A new reboot!
However, four years after this failed attempt, director Brian Taylor (Ghost Rider 2, Jonah Hex) is announced to direct Hellboy: The Crooked Man, a new reboot centered on the superhero. The story is inspired by “The Crooked Man” by Mike Mignola & Joshua Dysart, published in 2008.
In an interview given to Colliderthe filmmaker explains his intention: “I love the character of Hellboy. Guillermo del Toro’s films were big space operas and straight-up Del Toro. But some of the comics that Mike Mignola was making at the time were very different. He s It was more of a folkloric and scary horror. It showed a younger Hellboy, wandering in the dark corners of the world…
A never before seen version of Hellboy
“The Crooked Man” is an iconic book, written by Mike and drawn by Richard Corben, another legend. It takes place in the late 50s. This is my favorite version of the character. So for me the interest is to go back to that and offer a version of Hellboy that we haven’t seen yet.”
TNT
Jack Kesy
American actor Jack Kesy, already seen in the series The Strain and in Deadpool 2 where he plays Black Tom Cassidy, will play the Right Arm of Destruction and will be surrounded by Jefferson White, Adeline Rudolph, Leah McNamara and Joseph Marcell.
The Crooked Man takes place in the 1950s. Hellboy, then a young BPRD recruit, finds himself stranded in the Appalachians during a mission. There he discovers a small community haunted by witches and led by a demon linked to Hellboy’s past, the Twisted Man.
If he was not present on site, Mike Mignola, the creator of the comics, followed the evolution of the project and wants to be reassuring. In an Instagram post, the latter wrote: “Filming for the new HELLBOY movie has finished. I wasn’t on set for this film but they were kind enough to send me rushes and I have to say I loved what I saw. If fans have been waiting for a Hellboy movie that’s actually an adaptation of one of my stories, I think they’re finally going to get one.
Kudos to director Brian Taylor and a truly wonderful cast – as well as co-writer Chris Golden who put so much effort into figuring out how to give the studio what it wanted while still remaining true to the heart and soul of The Crooked Man, my favorite Hellboy story. I wish Richard Corben was still around to see this… They did a wonderful job bringing his truly horrible character to life.”
An unfounded controversy
Last March, during a round table at the Berlin Film Festival, Millennium Media producer (which produces Hellboy), Jonathan Yunger talked about AI and said he was not a fan of the images created by Artificial Intelligence but found them practical .
He specifies that he saw a demon character pass by who “Didn’t look great” and then used AI to find a new design. “I was able to create 3,000 creature models in an hour. Now I can start selecting and editing them before sending them to visual effects.”
The site MotionPictures.org took up these comments at the beginning of May by indicating that Jonathan Yunger was referring to Hellboy, creating such an outcry from fans that director Brian Taylor had to clarify things via his X account.
“To be clear: no AI was used on Hellboy: The Crooked Man. Both characters – Hellboy and Crooked Man – were created and filmed 100% practically, as the cinema gods intended , without any CGI enhancement…and they are INCREDIBLE.”
He adds in a second post: “Yunger was misquoted. His comment was in reference to another film, The Demon’s Grasp. Please rest assured that no AI was used on Hellboy: The Crooked Man and that our gloriously practical Hellboy looks phenomenal. The article on the other hand was probably written with an AI.”
The film is scheduled in our cinemas for 2024 but no release date has yet been specified and no images have – to date – been revealed.
