After their David Harbour-led and Neil Marshall-directed 2019 reboot failed at the box-office, Millennium Media is reportedly having another go and is in active development of a new live-action feature adaptation of Mike Mignola’s iconic “Hellboy” comics.
Discussing Film broke the news saying the new film has already been written and has a director attached – namely “Crank” and “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” co-director Brian Taylor.
Taylor also co-wrote the 2010 comics adaptation “Jonah Hex” and more recently has served as showrunner on Syfy series “Happy!” as well as writing for Peacock’s short-lived “Brave New World”.
According to the outlet, this will be a standalone feature so won’t have any links to either the two Guillermo del Toro films or the 2019 film. There was briefly some confusion this morning indicating this could be animated, but for now the initial report stands that the film is indeed live-action.
The current working title is reported to be “Hellboy: The Crooked Man” which suggests it will be based on the 2011 comic miniseries of the same name.
That miniseries follows Hellboy in 1956 in the Appalachian mountains where he encounters a man who in his youth sold his soul to a backwoods demon known as the Crooked Man. Together, they confront the demon and see if the man’s soul can be saved.
Mignola and horror/fantasy author Christopher Golden will reportedly be receiving story credits for this new reboot, though it’s not clear how much they contributed to the screenplay. Golden is said to have done some uncredited rewrites on 2019’s “Hellboy”.
Shooting is reportedly aiming to begin sometime this April in Bulgaria with casting now underway. Its likely Millennium will use the same studios in that country where they recently shot their “Red Sonja” reboot starring Matilda Lutz.
The previous “Hellboy” reboot was a critical and financial failure, earning $55 million worldwide on a production budget of $50 million. There is currently no distributor attached to this new film at present.
Source: Discussing Film
