Hellboy II Dossier: What We Know About The Golden Army
by Tom Burns

You know superhero movies are reaching the apex of their pop culture parabola when there’s a Leslie Nielsen spoof of the entire genre in theatres now. We love Airplane and Frank Drebin, but, let’s be honest, once the Zuckers take aim at you, it’s official - you’re at minute 16 of your 15 minutes of fame. It also doesn’t help that the last few huge high-profile cape-and-tight flicks didn’t exactly light the world on fire quality-wise (we’re looking at you, Spider-Man 3 and X-Men: Last Stand). This summer, the resuscitation of the big-budget superhero genre’s street cred lies firmly in the hands of two major releases: Iron Man (the subject of a previous Deadbolt Dossier) and Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. And while Iron Man is a corporate synergy wet-dream come true (toys and cartoons and product placement, oh my!), Hellboy 2 is a much stranger and, thus, much more interesting production.

Aside from the fact that it’s a bit odd that a Hellboy movie was even greenlit in the first place - a movie based an indie comic about a heroic demon from hell with the title character played by the fifth lead from Alien: Resurrection - 2004’s Hellboy was only a modest hit for Sony (grossing under $60 million domestically), though it did, admittedly, did develop a cult following on cable and DVD. So the fact that Hellboy and the rest of the BPRD are returning for another cinematic supernatural smackdown is both surprising and fairly awesome. Apparently, Guillermo Del Toro cashed in all of his cache from his Oscar-nominated bloody-good fairy tale Pan’s Labyrinth to get Hellboy 2 greenlit and, from the looks of the first trailer on hellboymovie.com, Del Toro is brining HB back bigger than ever.

Being the crazed Mike Mignola fans that we are (when will we see a Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser movie?), The Deadbolt has been gathering a dossier on all things Hellboy since we first heard that this sequel was even a possibility. Join us as we sift through the fragments, facts, and rumors surrounding Hellboy 2: The Golden Army and start placing your bets on which big red superhero is going to win the box office this summer. (Our prediction - Iron Man, but Hellboy could TOTALLY take Tony Stark in a fight.)

THE DEADBOLT DOSSIER ON HELLBOY 2:

BACKSTORY:

As we mentioned, the original Hellboy movie was profitable for Sony’s now-defunct Revolution Studios, but it didn’t exactly set the world on fire (there’s a Liz Sherman pun in there somewhere). Grossing $99 million or so domestically and internationally, Hellboy was well-reviewed both in critical and popular circles and, after the film did well on DVD, the debate started around whether such a non-traditional hit would warrant a sequel. Del Toro, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, and the cast seemed willing, but would the financing come together, particularly after Joe Roth’s Revolution collapsed. In June 2006, Del Toro told the crowd at a Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention that Sony had officially dropped Hellboy and that the project was currently residing at Paramount. The writer/director also confirmed that a script had been written and that, "It’s bigger in scale, but not necessarily in budget. Abe Sapien has a much bigger part, and we’re keeping closer to the mythology of the comics."

Two months later, it was officially announced that Universal had picked up Hellboy 2, with Universal Pictures Chairman Marc Shmuger and Co-Chairman David Linde commenting that, "All of us at Universal are delighted to be part of the continuing adventures of Hellboy and his universe, as there are few properties which offer this unique blend of action, humor and character- based spectacle. We are incredibly excited by the potential of this film and even more so to be working with Guillermo del Toro, whose vision for this film has ignited the fanboy imagination in all of us." Del Toro has also been said on several occasions that he was particularly pleased that the sequel was picked up by Universal, because that might one day lead to a movie where Hellboy could take on Universal’s unprecedented collection of classic movie monsters, including Dracula, Wolfman, and Frankenstein. (Which actually sounds pretty bad-ass, doesn’t it? It’d be like a good Van Helsing or Monster Squad without all the "nards".)

Production began principal photography on June 14, 2007, filming in Budapest and the United Kingdom. Several web sites, such as SuperheroHype.com, published early set visit reports, although none were as enlightening (and funny) as the reports posted by Sandman author Neil Gaiman’s daughter Maddy on her father’s blog. Allegedly, Gaiman visited the set of Hellboy 2 to pick up some tips from Del Toro in preparation for Gaiman’s feature directorial debut, an adaptation of his comic series Death: The High Cost of Living.

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