While the 2019 flop is still fresh, Millennium Media already has a Hellboy reboot in the works .
In fact, Discussing Film reveals that the studio will produce a new film tentatively titled Hellboy: The Crooked Man , in an advanced stage of development: the screenplay is ready, while the direction will be handled by Bryan Taylor , known for having made the Crank diptych with his partner Mark Neveldine . It won’t be his first experience with a comic book adaptation, as the pair wrote Jonah Hex and directed Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance .
Well, it looks like shooting on the film will begin next April in Bulgaria, where Millennium has been shooting MJ Bassett ‘s new Red Sonja , with Matilda Lutz in the eponymous role. We don’t know who wrote the script, but Mike Mignola (character creator) and Christopher Golden will be credited for the story. It is not clear, however, whether they actually worked on the subject of the cinecomic and/or contributed to the screenplay. Golden wrote three official Hellboy novels , but also authored a rewrite of the 2019 film, uncredited.
Since this is a reboot, we don’t expect the return of David Harbor (now engaged in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) nor of Ron Perlman . If filming really starts in April, we won’t have to wait long to find out who will play the protagonist and who the other cast members will be. To distance itself from Guillermo Del Toro ‘s films , the previous transposition excluded characters such as Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman and Johann Kraus , introducing other faces known to readers of the comics such as Ben Daimio, Lobster Johnson and Alice Monaghan . Who knows, maybe the reboot will decide to recover those members of theBureau for Paranormal Research and Defense that fans have been missing.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man
The working title might provide a clue to the story. The Crooked Man is in fact a three-part miniseries from 2011: set in 1956, it sees Hellboy meet a man called Tom in the mountains of West Virginia. Tom has sold his soul to a demon known as Crooked Man (“deformed man”, but also “corrupted”), and the hero will embark on a journey with him into the dark heart of Appalachia to see if said soul can be saved .
Obviously it is not said that the plot of the film is just this, but the adaptation could draw inspiration from it. As we know, cinecomics rarely stay true to comic book stories. We will keep you posted.