Millennium Media recently confirmed that they are indeed rebooting the Hellboy franchise once again. Following the disappointment of the 2019 reboot, the company has announced that Hellboy: The Crooked Man will take the films in a new direction. Brian Taylor (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance) is set to direct the film, with filming set to begin next month. What’s more, Mike Mignola, the creator of the comics, penned the script alongside Chris Golden. To top it all off? This one is going to be R rated and will be doing its very best to honor the source material.
Following the announcement, Taylor spoke with Collider about the film. It is based on the 2008 comic book of the same name. The Crooked Man was released right around the time that Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army hit theaters. In the interview, the director explained that they don’t want to do R-rated just for the sake of it. However, the material lends itself to a darker interpretation.
“We’ve definitely had a discussion of, you know, it doesn’t really serve anybody to make something R for R’s sake. To say it has to be R so we have to add A, B and C. But this material, this original material is dark and scary and violent and adult. So in order to really embrace that, we just don’t wanna have any handcuffs on.”
There is no word yet on casting. Ron Perlman played Hellboy in del Toro’s movies, while David Harbour played him in the failed 2019 reboot. Taylor also said that “In addition to HB himself there’s Tom Ferrell, who fans of the comic book will know… a character I think inspired by Manly Wade Wellman’s John the Balladeer, from Weird Tales, great pulp folk horror tales from the 50s and 60s. And there’s also a new character that Mike created for the film version that is gonna be a surprise.”
Here is the synopsis for Hellboy: The Crooked Man.
“The new film will see Hellboy and a rookie BPRD agent stranded in 1950s rural Appalachia. 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.”
Mike Richardson, Jeffrey Greenstein, Jonathan Yunger, Les Weldon, Rob Van Norden and Yariv Lerner are producing the film. Mike Mignola, Avi Lerner, Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson, Tanner Mobley, Lati Grobman and Christa Campbell are on board as executive producers. Speaking further, Taylor explained that the hope is to deliver a faithful version of Hellboy we’ve not seen on screen before.
“I want fans to know that we’re coming at this film, from a place of love for the original material, and for the character, for Mike’s character. We’re not trying to reinvent some completely different idea of Hellboy—we’re trying to get back to the feeling of these particular books from the mid-aughts. It’s something that hasn’t been seen on screen before, but it’s a version I think hardcore Hellboy fans will want to see. Anyway, I do.”
Hellboy: The Crooked Man does not yet have a release date set.
What do you think? Are you excited about the idea of a new Hellboy movie? Do you like the R-rated horror angle? Join in on the conversation over on Facebook or Twitter!
