From Millennium Films, director Neil Marshall, creator Mike Mignola and screenwriters Andrew Cosby/Andrew Golden, comes the bigscreen reboot of Hellboy starring David Harbour (Stranger Things) in the title role! The R-Rated reboot of the Dark Horse Comics hero does not have a release date at this time.
After two ultra successful big-screen films from director Guillermo Del Toro, Hellboy was always destined to be a trilogy but that final film just never got off the ground even though Del Toro and original Hellboy star Ron Perlman were always ready to go for it. Hellboy II made nearly double it’s budget back at the box office in 2008, but the third movie just never had any momentum. A month or so ago Del Toro did a Twitter poll asking for interest in a final Hellboy flick, but that didn’t pan out either with the director saying the project was once and for all dead.
When I spoke with creator Mike Mignola YEARS ago (after the second film however) at the Calgary Expo to see if the final movie would ever happen, he consistently said “no” and that Del Toro would never get around to making it. After speaking more with him, he also confirmed that he wasn’t as happy with the sequel because many of his ideas were left on the cutting-room floor as Del Toro did his own thing, opting to stray further from the source material than the first movie. I was surprised to hear Mignola speak so candidly about this since I loved the sequel myself, but I understand why he wouldn’t enjoy it as much if his partner actively disregarded nearly every single one of his ideas in the process.
So… Cut to all these years later and Mike Mignola announces that they are in fact rebooting Hellboy for the bigscreen, and Mignola himself is helping to develop the R-Rated project, starring one of my favourite performers on Earth right now – David Freaking Harbour from Stranger Things. Hell – yes. This is amazing news. But it’s also… kind of odd don’t you think? It makes me wonder if there was more to the Del Toro’s final film not getting the greenlight – especially since Mignola made the announcement himself about this upcoming reboot.
Shortly after the shocking announcement – Hellboy star Jeffrey Tambor (who was also in the second flick), threw some shade at Mignola saying he wouldn’t be around for the reboot with these tweets…
Not sure about you guys – but disregarding the creator of the character as having ANYTHING to do with the franchise’s success is a dick move there buddy. Hey now! Don’t be an A-Hole.
The current working title is Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen and screenwriter Andrew Cosby gave these details on the project to Silver Screen Beat saying it is a “darker, more gruesome version of Hellboy. Neil said from the very beginning that he wanted to walk a razor’s edge between horror and comic book movie, which was music to my ears, because that’s what I was shooting for in the script, and precisely what Mignola does so well with the comics. Honestly, everyone has just been working overtime to bring that Mignola magic to the big screen. The script is done, but work will continue as we move forward, always trying to make it the best it can be.”
