Hasitha Fernando on the story behind Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy as it turns 20…
Dark Horse Comics’ Hellboy has always been a property that hasn’t received the attention that it deserved. But perceptions changed with the release of Guillermo del Toro’s 2004 adaptation Hellboy, which amalgamated the filmmaker’s macabre sense of humor and distinct visual flair with Mike Mignola’s occult tinged narratives. As the dark fantasy actioner hits 20 we take a look at what went on behind-the-scenes during the making of the critically acclaimed film.
Hellboy was originally created as a throwaway design by Mike Mignola
Hellboy’s comic book origin was something of a happy, unexpected accident. The character was originally created as a throwaway design that writer-illustrator Mike Mignola did for a promotional pamphlet for the Great Salt Lake Comic-Con in 1991. The now familiar design featured a rudimentary drawing of a demon with the name “Hell Boy” etched on to its belt. Mignola initially had no intention of doing anything serious with the concept, which he thought was silly at the time, but the catchiness of the name always appealed to him.
Later, Mignola became interested in making a creator-owned comic, as he felt it made more sense to craft his own characters for the stories he wanted to tell, rather than trying to shoehorn existing characters into said stories. Mignola elaborated, “The kinds of stories I wanted to do I had in mind before I created Hellboy. It’s not like I created Hellboy and said, ‘Hey, now what does this guy do?’ I knew the kinds of stories I wanted to do, but just needed a main guy.” Thus, Hellboy made his official debut in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 on August 3, 1993 and has since appeared in various miniseries, one-shots and cross-overs.
This was Guillermo del Toro’s dream project
The name Guillermo del Toro isn’t one that requires introductions these days, sure, but in the early 2000s del Toro was still an up-and-coming director whose work was primarily confined to indie films. Del Toro got hooked on the Hellboy comics during the shoot of Mimic (1997), which was a particularly difficult experience for the fledgling filmmaker and the comics helped him navigate the troublesome shoot by offering some form of positive escapism. Because of the close bond he had with the source material del Toro badly wanted to bring the character to the big screen with Ron Perlman playing the lead.
However, del Toro was unable to secure a budget nor a studio approval for his dream project and it was until many years later that his fortunes changed with the success of Blade II (2002). The bona fide hit impressed the studio so much that they offered del Toro the opportunity to direct the sequel to Blade II or a Hellboy film, and of course the filmmaker picked the latter option. In a later interview del Toro said that he turned down the offer to helm Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) in order to direct Hellboy.
The studio wanted many changes made to the Hellboy character
After finally waiting for many a year to bring his vision to life and finally getting the opportunity with Revolution Studios, del Toro naturally assumed that things would be smooth sailing from there on – but nothing could be further from the truth. From the get-go the filmmaker was pummelled with suggestions to change Hellboy’s character by producers and the studio during their meetings.
One ludicrous idea was to have Hellboy be a human who transforms into Hellboy when he gets angry, à la Marvel comics The Incredible Hulk. Another was to have him come from hell, but to resemble a normal human. Luckily for all of us, del Toro stuck to his guns and vetoed all such attempts to alter the character. Quite interestingly del Toro wasn’t the studio’s first choice to direct Hellboy either. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (The City of Lost Children), Peter Hyams (End of Days) and David S. Goyer (Blade: Trinity) were some of their top contenders for the gig.
Vin Diesel & Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson were considered for the title role
From the very outset Guillermo del Toro’s one and only choice for Hellboy was Ron Perlman. When he and Hellboy creator and co-executive producer Mike Mignola sat down for a meeting prior to production kicking off, del Toro asked Mignola who his first choice for the lead role is. When Mignola revealed it was Ron Perlman, del Toro also confided his choice was also the same. The studio of course had a much different actor in mind and that was none other than Vin Diesel. Diesel was certainly a more bankable star than Perlman, at the time, having headlined multiple action franchises with xXx, Chronicles of Riddick and Fast and the Furious.
However, del Toro sought an actor that could deliver nuance and subtlety under a heavy layer of makeup and didn’t think Diesel could convincingly pull it off. So, in order to convince the producers of Ron Perlman’s star quality, del Toro showed the executives footage of Perlman’s character Reinhardt in Blade II and they were sold on the actor. Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson and Jeremy Renner were also two other actors who were in the running for the role.
Ron Perlman’s preparation for the movie was an insane one
In a career spanning over three decades Ron Perlman has worked alongside a multitude of critically acclaimed actors ranging from Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, John Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brad Dourif, Jude Law, and Ed Harris. A classically trained actor by profession Perlman has appeared in countless stage plays before getting his big break with Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Academy Award- winning film Quest for Fire (1983). The actor drew further praise starring opposite Linda Hamilton on the fantasy series Beauty and the Beast (1987) even earning a Golden Globe Award. Following stints in indie films like Cronos (1992) and The City of Lost Children (1995), Perlman finally nabbed a role that was worthy of his talents and introduced him to a wider audience – this was Hellboy.
To prepare for his role, Perlman read all of Mike Mignola’s comics, and worked out three hours a day, five to seven days a week. Even between shooting and on off days the actor stuck to his grueling work out regime. But that was not all. Perlman had to endure a lengthy four-hour make-up routine to become Hellboy, on a daily basis. After completion of the arduous routine, the only part of Perlman’s body that remained his original self were his eyelids.
David Hyde Pierce didn’t take credit for voicing Abe Sapien
Doug Jones is one of those actors that everyone has probably seen but doesn’t know about. The uber talented mime artist and contortionist has made a career playing memorable non-human characters hidden under layers upon layers of prosthetics and make-up. Hocus Pocus (1993), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Fantastic Four: The Rise of Silver Surfer (2007) and The Shape of Water (2017) are just some of the films that benefited from his unique contributions. Jones always had a good working relationship with del Toro, so it came as no surprise when his services were called upon to play the amphibious Abe Sapien in Hellboy.
However, the producers wanted a “bigger” and “more recognizable sound” to provide the voice for Abe Sapien and hence Frasier alum David Hyde Pierce was hired to do the needful. But Pierce, being the consummate professional that he was, refused to take credit for his voice acting performance in the movie. He even stayed away from press tours and didn’t even attend the film’s premiere out of respect for Jones.
Del Toro was all about practical effects, make-up & prosthetics
Guillermo del Toro has always been about using real-world solutions to bring his singular visions to life. With pretty much all of his movies possessing fantastic elements in them, the make-up department in any del Toro film has their work cut out for them and Hellboy was no exception. Because of the massive practical effects workload of the film the live-action creature work on Hellboy was split between three companies.
Rick Baker’s Cinovation, led by artists Matt Rose and Chad Waters, were primarily responsible for Hellboy. Spectral Motion, headed up by Mike Elizalde, worked on Abe Spain, Sammael, Ivan the Corpse, and an animatronic baby Hellboy. And lastly DDT, overseen by David Martí and Montse Ribé, were responsible for crafting the half-mechanized abomination Karl Ruprecht Kroenen and additional background pieces. Ron Perlman’s transformation into Hellboy took over four hours while Doug Jones’ make-up sessions took somewhere between five to seven hours and another three hours to reverse the process. Ouch.
The story was a blend of comic book, obscure occultism, & del Toro’s original ideas
Del Toro’s story for Hellboy was a mishmash of elements which not only borrowed heavily from the source material but was also inspired by the works of H.P Lovecraft, obscure occult elements and del Toro’s original ideas. The bulk of the story came from the “Seed of Destruction” comic book storyline, but the rest were taken from the “Right Hand of Doom” and “Box Full of Evil” short stories. The story also contained nods to other stories such as “The Corpse” and “Pancakes” as well.
Whilst crafting the script, del Toro extensively researched occult Nazi philosophies and used them as references in various aspects of the story. But in spite of the creative freedom he was given, del Toro always knew the beating heart of his story was Ron Perlman’s Hellboy and the relationships he had with the other characters. According to the filmmaker the movie was a story of, “two fathers with a single son. He [Hellboy] has one father in Broom, and another father in Rasputin. It’s a very graphic way of representing Hellboy’s conflict.” The love story between Hellboy and Liz was also something del Toro cooked up for the film’s story as a sort of “reverse Beauty and the Beast” affair.
Some movie theaters refused to screen Hellboy
That’s right. Even in this day and age there are still movie theaters out there which would balk at the very idea of advertising a movie with the word “Hell” in it. Countries like Malaysia, however, worked around this thorny problem by changing the titled of the film to things like “Super Sapiens”, but others outright refused to screen the movie due to the negative connotations associated with the title. Even some theaters in the southern United States weren’t comfortable with the idea of hosting the flick and during the Easter season certain circuits mysteriously dropped screenings despite Hellboy still playing worldwide.
Critical acclaim & the launch of the Hellboy franchise
In spite of the challenges the movie faced with promotional activities Hellboy went on to rake in a respectable $99.8 million at the worldwide box-office with a production budget of $60 million. The movie garnered favorable reviews from critics who praised the film’s unique style, lavish production values and the scene stealing performance dished out by Ron Perlman.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 81% based on 204 reviews with the site’s critical consensus reading, “With wit, humor and Guillermo del Toro’s fantastic visuals, the entertaining Hellboy transcends the derivative nature of the genre.” The legendary Roger Ebert gave the film three and half stars out of four singling out Perlman’s brilliant performance by saying: “And in Ron Perlman, it has found an actor who is not just playing a superhero, but enjoying it … he chomps his cigar, twitches his tail and battles his demons with something approaching glee. You can see an actor in the process of making an impossible character really work”.
In 2022, both Rolling Stone and Variety even named the film amongst one of the best superhero films of all times. The success of the first installment emboldened del Toro and co. to try their luck making a direct sequel to the movie and what we ended up with was the wildly enjoyable Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), which built on what worked in the original but had more chutzpah and ambition. Between the release of the first and second Hellboy films two animated flicks – Hellboy: Sword of Storms and Hellboy: Blood and Iron – based on del Toro’s live-action version and inspired by Mignola’s work, were released to positive reviews.
Initially del Toro envisioned the movies as a trilogy of sorts but due to lack of financing and studio support Hellboy 3 was permanently shelved. Looking to capitalize on the character’s popularity, Millenium Media decided to reboot Hellboy with Stranger Things alum David Harbor and The Descent’s Neil Marshall at the helm, but the R rated 2019 reimagining bombed hard at the box-office. Amidst the financial disappointment of that movie Millenium Media has once again opted to go for a second reboot featuring the red dude titled Hellboy: The Crooked Man. With production already wrapped only time will tell if Hollywood’s latest foray into Mike Mignola’s world would prove to be a bona fide hit or whether it’d turn out to be yet another critical and commercial failure.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
