Mike Mignola has seen Hellboy take on many different forms. The creator of the classic cult character is now gearing up for the third big-screen adaptation of his iconic work and seems more optimistic than ever.
Speaking to Variety, Mignola dove into the upcoming Hellboy film, The Crooked Man, from director Brian Taylor. Best known for his work on the explosive film Crank, Taylor is looking to strip back the superhero elements so many filmmakers have tried to include and is taking the character down a horror route, and Mignola is overjoyed by this take and happy to see horror at the forefront of a Hellboy story.
“His intention is to make a horror movie, so that’ll be nice. That’ll be interesting. I read the new draft of the screenplay yesterday, and yes, it is definitely R,” says Mignola. “It’s the first Hellboy script that I read, and I went, ‘Oh, it’s a horror movie,’ which is what I wanted. Taylor does not have a reputation as a horror movie director. But, so far, we’ve had two horror movie directors make Hellboy movies, and we’ve never gotten a horror movie.”
He adds, “For years, we’ve been saying if you’re going to make a Hellboy movie, make it small. And the perfect story to do that with is my personal favorite, The Crooked Man. I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever written. It’s beautifully illustrated by Richard Corben, and it’s a solid story that doesn’t involve a million different characters. Everybody actually agreed from the very beginning, ‘Yes, we want to do that one.’ Budget-wise, it’s good because it’s a lower-budgeted kind of a story. It’s not the Hellboy origin. It’s not Hellboy saving the world. It’s not huge. It’s a subtle, dark, little folk horror story.”
As production nears, Mignola revealed he is yet to meet the new Hellboy, with actor Jack Kesy set to tackle the big red monster in Hellboy: The Crooked Man, though he remains positive that Kesy is a perfect fit: “I’ve never met him [Kesy]. I’ve only seen pictures, and I’ve seen him a little bit in films. He certainly has the look. Everybody who has worked with him says he’s fantastic. This thing’s being done very fast, so I think the fact that he’s great and he’s available, that’s me being a little bit of smart-ass about it, but I just have to trust that everybody is right.”
Mignola is also easy to please when it comes to the actors playing Hellboy, even offering praise to David Harbour, who recently portrayed the character. “Harbour certainly did not get a fair shake because I thought he was terrific. I thought there was a lot of stuff wrong with that movie, but Harbour was in no way one of the things that was wrong.”
Hellboy: The Crooked Man sees Hellboy stranded in 1950s rural Appalachia with a rookie BPRD agent. There they discover a small community haunted by witches, led by a local devil with a troubling connection to Hellboy’s past: the Crooked Man. The film will begin production in Bulgaria in the next few weeks.
