Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro was present for a Q & A at Wizard World Dallas today, November 22. He said that the production went out of their way for the new trailer to give people, who don’t know a lot about Hellboy, a snapshot of the story. del Toro added that you can expect a new 30-second spot on the Super Bowl, which includes a few more digital monster images.
The production is currently about 10% into creating the special effects. In about two weeks, giant banners of both the good and bad guys in the movie will start appearing in theaters. On a funny note, Guillermo said that moviegoers can’t really tell who the good and bad guys are from the way the characters look, though the good guys are definitely more colorful. You can also expect a new poster in early spring.
Commenting on the Hellboy character, the director said that he’s “a regular Joe, a blue collar guy. He comes with a monkey wrench and a bunch of tools and says, ‘where’s the leak.'” About the story, Guillermo added Hellboy is “a guy learning to be a man, even though he was born a demon.”
For fans who like to be spoiled, del Toro mentioned an “Art of Hellboy” book will be out before the movie is released. It will be 200 pages long, a hardback and full of spoilers, including spoilers about the movie’s ending. It’s a real nuts & bolds type of book and goes into quite a lot of details.
Speaking on how the movie became a reality, he said that officially there were 13 drafts of the script – and unofficially, there were 65 drafts!
While Guillermo had high praise for Revolution Studios for picking the project up, he did mention some interesting things about those studios that didn’t. He said Universal asked him if the character could be a regular guy and then turn into Hellboy when he becomes angry (was this before they got The Hulk rights??!), another studio wanted to know if Hellboy could not have a tail in the film, and one studio also wanted The Rock for the role. It sounds as though Hellboy ended up in the right place, as Revolution gave Guillermo $60 million to develop the film, let him use the script he wanted, and let him cast Ron Perlman in the lead.
del Toro told Hellboy creator Mike Mignola that he wanted to make it “The Last Emperor” of cheesy monster movies.
Guillermo del Toro not only wrote and directed, he’s also providing voices for Hellboy. He’s voicing Baby Hellboy, Kroenen and the monster Samuel.
So will there be a sequel? “If we come up with a great idea, then yes. If there is a second one, it should explore a different side of Hellboy,” said del Toro.
For his upcoming projects, Guillermo is finishing up a rewrite of “Mountains of Madness” and next year will be writing a Victorian ghost story.
Source: Blake Wright
