The HELLBOY panel
by JoBlo

Who was there?
Director Guillermo Del Toro
Actor Ron Perlman
Artist/Writer Mike Mignola

For anyone who doesn’t know much about director Guillermo Del Toro personally, take my word for it...he's one the coolest directors that I’ve ever heard speak in front of an audience. He’s actually a lot like writer/director Kevin Smith in a lot of ways, since they’re both obviously major fanboys themselves, they’re always cracking wise, they consistently toss out self-deprecating remarks (Del Toro is especially quick to poke fun at his own weight) and they both seem to love what they do for a living. Having never seen or heard Del Toro speak before, I also loved his nifty Mexican accent and his nifty way of swearing like a sailor every second word (“I fuckin’ love it!”). The man is a dude among dudes, and to top that off…he makes kickass movies! How can you go wrong? If you ever get the chance to meet the man or hear him speak…take the opportunity and check him out.

As for the panel itself, it lasted for about one hour and essentially consisted of the three men answering questions from the crowd about their upcoming project entitled HELLBOY, which is tentatively set to be released in the summer of 2004 (yeah, it’s a little early to talk about it, but what the hey…it’s a Comic Convention and the cult following of the comic book on which the film is based, is a pretty rabid bunch). Anyway, here are some of the various points which stood out during the panel.

• Limited edition posters of the HELLBOY teaser posters were given out at the Con (see pic above--yay, I got one!)
• Del Toro said that there were two reasons that he was doing this film, 1) Because he’s “desperately in love with the comic” and 2) because Mike Mignola has been part of the project from the start and will continue to be part of the process until the very end.
• Ron Perlman said that the screenplay for the movie was a “fantastic adaptation”.
• Mike Mignola said that it took 5 years to get to this point of the movie adaptation and that they got the director they wanted (Del Toro), they got the main lead that they wanted (Perlman) and they have a great script.
• Mignola also said that the film would be roughly based on the first HELLBOY mini-series, with some spots from other mini-series thrown in.
• Del Toro said that his last film, BLADE 2, was a “great popcorn movie" but that HELLBOY would definitely not be the same type of flick. He did say that the visuals and stuff that he learned from the former picture would definitely be in HELLBOY though. For example, he said that he would definitely be digitally processing the entire film in post-production.
• When asked about whether or not they were preparing this film up as a “franchise”, Del Toro said that Mignola had already set his entire creation up as a franchise—he’s up to his fifth book now.
• Del Toro also stressed (more than once actually) that he would definitely be sticking to the comic book’s basics, since he absolutely loves the series. He said that it would not be a “gory film” (like the comic) but that there would be plenty of “big fights between creatures”
• When asked whether or not there would be as many obscure references in the film as in his comic book, Mignola said, “no, there will not”.
• Del Toro also said that he always has several other projects being worked on at the same time, but that the next two years of his life would be dedicated to HELLBOY. He said that movies take a long time to get to the screen, as proven by the 16 years it took him to get THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE to the screen, 8 years that it took to get KRONOS made and 5 years, which it took HELLBOY.
• One of the projects in Del Toro’s upcoming projects arsenal is entitled THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (whose original title was MONTE CRISTO but was changed after THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO came out earlier this year). Del Toro said that he had no idea when that project would happen, but that much like many of his other projects, he was passionate about it and that he would continue working on it, until it got made. He did say that it would have the “aesthetics of a horror film set in a western.”
• Another Del Toro project is called IN THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, which is a H.P. Lovecraft adaptation. This is the only project of his currently in development, which he is actively co-writing with his partner. Del Toro said that he is “almost done with the storyline” and that he would be “doing his best to stay true to Lovecraft’s mythology”. Mike Mignola would also be attached to work on the project. He also said that it would definitely not be set in modern times, but that it would be a “period” movie. “It’s like my TITANIC”, said Del Toro...laughing.
• When asked about HELLBOY’s possible rating, Del Toro said that this would be his “first foray into PG-13”, and that there would be “no dick, tits, ass or fucking” and that it would not be a gory film. He said that the film would basically be a good combination of his previous movies, most of which were “quiet horror”, except for BLADE 2, which was over-the-top popcorn fun.
• When asked about which creature shop would be handling the effects in the film, Del Toro said that it would be Rick Baker’s company handling HELLBOY himself only, but that his “Catholic guilt” led him to try out a new shop recently formed, from some folks who worked on BLADE 2 with him, called Spectral Motion, and that he was very happy with what he’d seen from them thus far. Del Toro said that he’s a “fanboy” at heart and that he’s always willing to give new people a shot in his films, in fact, he even admitted that he had hired two people to do his story-boards, after meeting them at conventions like this one or at dvd signings.
• Ron Perlman was asked to say “oh crap” for the audience (a famous saying of HELLBOY). He did so and was handsomely rewarded by the adoring crowd.
• Mignola said that since the film would also be divulging some new stuff about HELLBOY’s past, he would be releasing a new mini-series around the time of the film’s release, which would give HELLBOY a little more “back story”.
• One of the things that won Mike Mignola over for Guillermo Del Toro as director of this project was the fact that they BOTH wanted Ron Perlman to be HELLBOY, and that he also liked Del Toro’s pitch for the project, in which he basically said “I want to make THE LAST EMPEROR of cheesy monsters movies”. 

Check out the official HELLBOY movie site here

Check out the official HELLBOY comic book site here
 

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2002

The Arrow and I went down to San Diego for yet another awesome COMIC CONVENTION this year (check out our 2000 and 2001 reports respectively), and let me tell you...there was a lot of shit going on and lots of cool and surprising cameos. Starting Wednesday, each of the panel coverages will go up, so check out what's to come below. And yes, the always popular PHOTO GALLERY will be up on Friday.

The Hellboy panel:
Writer/director Guillermo Del Toro, actor Ron Perlman and writer/artist Mike Mignola discuss the upcoming comic-to-film project, as Del Toro sneaks a few dozen "fucks" in there before the panel's first 10 minutes is up.

The Bulletproof Monk panel:
Actor Seann William Scott and actress/babe Jamie King sit down and discuss their collaboration on the upcoming THE BULLETPROOF MONK, which also co-stars the very cool Chow Yun-Fat.

The House of the Dead panel:
Writers Mark. A. Altman and Dave Parker discuss the 2003 release of yet another video game making its way to the big screen: THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD. And what's this about a VAMPIRELLA movie? Stay tuned.

SONY/COLUMBIA

The XXX panel:
Actress/babe Asia Argento hops on stage and tells us a little something about herself and her upcoming movie with a certain Vin Diesel. Does Vin show up unexpectedly?? (only in my dreams... ;)

The Tooth Fairy panel:
Actress/babe Emma Caulfield discusses her upcoming foray into genre flicks with TOOTH FAIRY, and the Arrow takes a few moments to discuss the film with director Jonathan Liebesman. Tooth-pulling ensues.

NEW LINE

The LOTR: The Two Towers panel:
No footage was shown but we did get a couple of bits tossed our way, as well as some cameos by Frodo, Pippin and Merry themselves (aka Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan).

WARNER BROS

The Ecks vs Sever panel:
Actress/babe Lucy Lui sits next to actor/Darth Maul Ray Park and director Kaos (who explained the origins of his name) to discuss their collaboration with the man with the golden cock, Antonio Banderas, in a little something called BALLISTIC: ECKS VS SEVER (and yes, it's also based on a video game).

The Dreamcatcher panel:
Actor/all-around cool guy Jason Lee and actor Timothy Olyphant get on stage to field some questions about the film which they are presently shooting, based on a Stephen King novel, entitled DREAMCATCHER, but are instead pelted with questions about Kevin Smith movies and requests to repeat cool quotes from said flicks.

The Terminator 3 surprise:
Unbeknownst to most, director Jonathan Mostow was nice enough to drop by the Con, in order to show off a few minutes of the highly anticipated sequel to the sequel of THE TERMINATOR. Another "small" cameo dropped by to pay his props to the fanboys, a gentleman by the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

UNIVERSAL

The Hulk panel:
Director Ang Lee and producers Gale Anne Hurd, Larry J. Franco and Avi Arad stop by to show us some stills of the 2003 release of THE HULK (that's right, no actual footage or pics of the green monster...darn!) and answer some questions.

FOX

The Solaris surprise:
Yet another big surprise came in writer/director/king of the world James Cameron showing up for a quick Q&A about the upcoming sci-fi flick SOLARIS (which he produced and Steven Soderbergh wrote and directed), as well as a 4-minute clip from the actual movie, starring George Clooney.

The X-Men 2 panel:
Director Bryan Singer was nice enough to leave his Vancouver set of X2 and come down to Diego for some questions from the audience and to show us the coolest 2-minute clip that I saw all weekend. Wow!! The man apparently has only been shooting from about 3-4 weeks, but from what we all saw of the clip...this movie looks like a fuckin' slam-dunk!

The Daredevil panel:
This was one of the biggest panels with writer/director Mark Steven Johnson leading the pack, alongside DAREDEVIL himself, Ben Affleck, as well as producer Avi Arad, Gary Foster and comic guru Joe Quesada. Yet another exclusive clip was shown from the movie, and it will also be discussed.

The official 2002 JoBlo.com Photo Gallery:
Pictures from our trip to California / Vegas for anyone who gives a shit. Here are the links to last year's photo gallery and the one from 2000.