“While del Toro did a more fanciful version of Hellboy, Neil has done a darker, more horror version of Hellboy. Del Toro’s Hellboy had a grousing blue-collar disposition (he was a hero that’s going to hell in a lunch pail as opposed to the proverbial hand-basket) but it sounds as if much of that has been exorcised this time around. While Mignola didn’t get into specifics, he made it clear that the new adaptation will strike a different balance between humor and horror than the del Toro films, which had a playfulness. The choice of source material underlines the tonal shift with the new film (which features Milla Jovovich as the Queen of Blood). “It’s my epic,” Mignola said, simply, of the sprawling story that forces Hellboy to confront his true heritage, pits him against the ruthless Queen of Blood, and climaxes (at least in the comics) with the hulking hero’s apparent death. Their opus stretched over years with a trio of miniseries: Darkness Calls (2007), The Wild Hunt (2011) and The Storm and the Fury (2013), all published by Dark Horse. The new film adapts a three-part adventure that appeared in the comics over a span of five years and were written by Mignola but illustrated by Duncan Fegredo. So we went through the script taking out the del Toro-isms and in some ways go out of our way to make sure we are doing a different Hellboy with its own distinct character but still adhering to the comics.” If you are going to use a guy, let him do what he does best. Neil is a horror director so the idea then was to a make a darker film. “Early on there was some idea of continuing the storyline that del Toro had started but would that be fair to a new director? So we decided to just start over. “We went back and forth on that,” Mignola said. Should there be a continuation of the del Toro mythology or a clean break? When it became clear that del Toro (now celebrated as the Oscar-winning director of The Shape of Water) was not returning for another Hellboy installment, it led to some debate about the next step. The second del Toro film was an original story, not a comic adaptation. “We must have had a two-and-a-half hour conversation…I remember thinking, ‘I hope I haven’t completely derailed his performance by giving him way too much information.’ ”
“One night we were texting back and forth so much I said, ‘Dude here’s my phone number, just call me,’ ” Mignola said.
Harbour spent long hours getting into the character and not all of them were in make-up chair. The New York Comic Con appearance is Saturday morning at Javits Center, with Mignola and Harbour joining a panel that is expected to include fellow cast members Ian McShane, Daniel Dae Kim and Sasha Lane. The previous Hellboy films starred Ron Perlman ( Sons of Anarchy) in the title role, but this time around the crimson-colored lug will be portrayed by David Harbour, who has considerable experience with supernatural seekers as the Emmy-nominated star of Netflix’s hit Stranger Things. The director of the new film is Neil Marshall ( The Descent) working from a script written by Andrew Cosby ( 2 Guns).
Is it a sequel like the second del Toro film ? I suspect calling this one just Hellboy sends the message that this is the first one in a new series of movies.” “They would like this to be the first of many new Hellboy movies and if they had a subtitle it might make it a little confusing. “Honestly, I was a little surprised that they didn’t give it a subtitle,” Mignola said. With a new star, new director, new tone and new story, the title now feels like a signal that this is a fresh start for a reborn franchise. Mignola tells Deadline he was initially caught off guard by the choice but then came to see value within its symbolism.
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