Hellboy creator Mike Mignola has "mixed feelings" about some of the other Hellboy movies, but thinks the new R-rated version is "amazing"
Aug. 9, 2024Exclusive: Hellboy creator Mike Mignola compares working on new reboot with previous adaptations
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Speaking to GamesRadar+ at San Diego Comic-Con, Mignola opened up about how much he enjoyed being involved from the very beginning. “So often I would come in late on projects where somebody else had already put the pieces together in a way that didn’t quite fit,” he told us. “And this time, I got a chance to say, ‘We’re going to do The Crooked Man, we’re going to stick to that story.’ We need to add a little bit of backstory. So we borrowed it from one other story so we didn’t have to make up new stuff.”
The new movie, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, is set in the ‘50s and sees the Cambion trapped in rural Appalachia. He finds himself sucked into a local conspiracy when the community he’s in starts getting haunted by witches, all controlled by one sinister figure.
“We basically just fit two different Hellboy stories together. Just a little bit of one and then try to stick as much as possible to The Crooked Man, because not only is it my favorite story, it has most of my favorite Hellboy moments,” Mignola added. “So the idea of actually trying to get that stuff on screen was really exciting.”
Mignola has been involved with many of the Hellboy adaptations in various forms. “Every one of them has been a very different experience,” he added. “But as somebody who’s had mixed feelings about the earlier films, the one lesson I learned is if I can get in at the very beginning, and at some point you know you’re gonna lose – I mean you never have control but you feel like you have control at the beginning and then you hope that somebody doesn’t take apart the thing you built. That happens.”
The new movie is directed by Crank helmer Brian Taylor, and Mignola said working with him on the film allowed them to make it one of the most comic-book-accurate takes yet. “When we first talked, Brian said, ‘Let’s just go back to the way the real storey was written,'” the writer continued. “So you think you might be in good company when that happens.”
Mignola was also blown away that the new version also contains some moments drawn straight from Richard Corben’s artwork. “Yeah, more so than any other movie and I know in other movies, there have been moments where I’ve gone, ‘Oh, cool, that’s the comic.’ But this thing was so much the comic.
Sign up for the Total Film Newsletter
Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox
“This is the only movie where I wasn’t on set at all but the only movie where I’ve actually seen dailies every day so it was about one day behind where they were shooting. Almost every day was amazement of, ‘Oh my god that looks like that, this looks like this. Oh my god, they used the same angle for that shot.’ It really was that amazing thing of seeing your work brought to life.”
I’m the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for the Total Film and SFX sections online. I previously worked as a Senior Showbiz Reporter and SEO TV reporter at Express Online for three years. I’ve also written for The Resident magazines and Amateur Photographer, before specializing in entertainment.
After the massive success of Deadpool and Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds says he sees the Merc with a Mouth as more of a supporting character going forward
Kraven The Hunter director hopes that the movie is successful enough to lead to the adaptation of one of the most iconic Spider-Man comics
Todd Howard “rolled his eyes” at the idea of Troy Baker playing Indiana Jones in the Great Circle, but the Bethesda boss later told him “you’re doing a hell of a job”
