Hellboy

Genre: Horror/Comic Book Adaptation.

Studio: Universal Pictures.
Production Company: Lawrence Gordon Productions/Dark Horse Entertainment.

Project Phase: In Development.

Who's In It: Unknown.
Who's Making It: Guillermo Del Toro (Director); Peter Briggs (Screenwriter); Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, Mike Richardson (Producers); based on the Mike Mignola Hellboy series of comic books.

Premise: In 1944 a group of Nazis who were dabbling in the occult tried to bring a demonic force into the world to use against their enemies. An Allied strike team intercepted the Nazis and stopped their sinister plan, but not before something came into our world. Sitting in their circle of power was what appeared to be a red-skinned, horned child - literally a demon - with an enigmatic left hand fashioned from shaped metal.

Fifty years later, this demon child has grown into adulthood. Instead of being an instrument of destruction, he has championed himself for the forces of good. When reports of strange and unusual phenomena reach America's Bureau for Paranormal Research and Development , he's the fella usually assigned to check it out. He's Hellboy, and if you can get over the fact he's supposed to be a demon, he'll probably buy you a beer.

Release Date: Unknown.

Comments: The world's greatest paranormal investigator is about to hit the big screen. He's big, red, has a mechanical left hand but he's really just one of the guys. Mignola's stories may be inspired by Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft and Mary Shelley but his Hellboy is more in the vein of Detective John McClane from Die Hard than Tim Curry's Dark One from Legend.

In our humble opinion, there are three wonderful assets of the comic that are essential to craft a faithful Hellboy movie:

• One: Hellboy must act like an average guy in a fantastic situation. Even though you're constantly reminded that he's probably from somewhere close to aich-ee-double hockey sticks he's consistenly written as if he's a normal joe doing his regular job (which just happens to be battling vampires, werewolfs and the occasional demonic frog.) That very 'average guy' quality is what makes his character so damn appealing - the reader relates to Hellboy even moreso.

• Two: The dark atmosphere and the unusual depictions of the monsters. Teamed up with Mignola's minimalist art and the book's dark, forboding inking and coloring, you'd half-expect Agents Mulder and Scully to walk on-panel...but it works perfectly. Add to that Mignola's take on traditional monsters (he relies heavily upon the original European mythology) and the occasional bizarre creature (like we said, his demonic frogs are enough to creep you out) and a new niche of horror-adventure is created.

• Three: The well-written secondary characters. Mignola isn't afraid to let the book's other characters in the Bureau shine, and when they do you want to see more. Liz and Abe - we want 'em in there!

Rumors: Unknown.

Scoop Feedback:

September 1, 1997... It's no secret author Mignola has been mucho verbal about being very concerned with the direction of a possible Hellboy motion picture, until scribe Briggs flew over from England to meet with him and Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson two weeks ago. Mignola is now a much reassured and happy man, and is reportedly offering "extensive creative input" to the screen story. [Thanks to 'Mr. Clark', who dropped off this note in the dead of night - on the foot of our bed while we were sleeping. In the morning we changed the sheets.]

April 12, 1998... Rob Allstetter, the fellow who writes the Trailer Park section for Wizard magazine, interviewed Hellboy creator Mike Mignola recently. Mignola said that from what he's seen the adaptation was "really faithful" to the comic. Although he remains cautious as to the chances that a Hellboy movie will ever get greenlighted he remains hopeful. Universal's rights to the property expire in nine months, then it reverts back to Mignola. [Thanks to 'Mr. Clark' for the recon.]

April 14, 1998... Hellboy creator Mike Mignola is currently doing an online strip of his character over at Playboy Online. At the Playboy.com internet chat transcript from March 12/98, Mignola had this to say about Briggs' script:

"Hellboy has been optioned as a movie and I just read the movie script [by screenwriter Peter Briggs] the other day. I don't believe it will ever be made, but it would be really cool if they made the movie that I just read the script for."

July 20, 1998... Just last weekend at the Wizard World Chicago convention director John Bruno gave the crowd an exclusive first at his latest picture, Virus. After the preview of the film Bruno hinted at the possibility that he may have another Dark Horse feature in his future. Our scooper explains what went down:

"Bruno wouldn't comment on his next movie, but he did ask the Dark Horse representative for permission before a negative reply was given. Hint? Then he just told us that we would know what it was if we heard it."

Now, this is nothing more than speculation that could quite possibly turn into a rumor....buuuut...could Bruno be sizing up Hellboy as his next project? C'mon. Why the need for a Dark Horse rep tp shoosh Bruno down? Somethin's up. [Info sent in by 'Uncle Seven'.]

August 3, 1998... Today's Hollywood Reporter reports that genre director Guillermo del Toro (Mimic, Cronos) will direct the film adapation of Hellboy. We've heard rumblings that del Toro is aware of the project but hasn't decided which film he'll direct next. HR might have the scoop but we're working on a way to try and confirm or deny said scoop shortly. [With a nod to Harry's AICN and an anonymous friend.]

August 4, 1998... We've confirmed Del Toro's involvement on Hellboy; he's been considering this project for months now and it finally looks like the director has committed to it. However the budget isn't set at $40 million as yesterday's Hollywood Reporter noted; at the moment the picture hasn't been budgeted but it's extremely likely the budget will start at $40 million and go up from there. This latest development has now raised the film from CA's 'script stage' level to the 'in development' stage. [An anonymous paranormal agent told us this.]

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