HELLBOY: THE CROOKED MAN Director Shares New Details and Says Film Will "Really Honor" the Original Comics

We’ve got a new Hellboy movie coming and it’s another attempt to reboot the franchise. The movie is titled Hellboy: The Crooked Man and Brian Taylor (Crank, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Gamer) is set to direct the movie.

The story is based on the comic of the same name, and in that story, written by creator Mike Mignola with art by the late Richard Corben, Hellboy teams up with a rookie BPRD agent named Tom Ferrell, and find themselves stranded in 1950s rural Appalachia. “There, they discover a small community haunted by witches, led by a local devil with a troubling connection to Hellboy’s past: the Crooked Man.” The story will “expand Hellboy’s world through one of the most beloved issues of the comic series.”

The script for the film is being written by Mignola and novelist Christopher Golden, and in a recent interview with Collider, the director talked about the movie and how he is looking to “really honor” the original comics. He said:

“We started with a draft by Mike and Chris. Funny enough, a lot of what I’m doing is trying to bring it even closer to the original comic book than what they did… A comic book will never directly translate to the screen, but I will tell you that my intent in the movie is to really honor and bring to life the original comics.”

But, there will be some changes from the comic. In the original story Hellboy is protecting a man named Tom Ferrell from a deal he made with the demonic miser Jeremiah Watkins, who goes by the name The Crooked Man. In an effort to save Tom’s soul, Hellboy teams up with a witch named Cora. But, we’ve learned that Cora will not be in the film, and she will be replaced by a new character that Mignola created for the movie. Talory noted:

“In addition to HB himself there’s Tom Ferrell, who fans of the comic book will know, and there’s also a new character that Mike created for the film version that is gonna be a surprise.”

Taylor also confirmed that he is looking to make an R-Rated version of the film. He said:

“We’ve definitely had a discussion of, you know, it doesn’t really serve anybody to make something R for R’s sake. To say it has to be R so we have to add A, B and C. But this material, this original material is dark and scary and violent and adult. So in order to really embrace that, we just don’t wanna have any handcuffs on.”

Hellboy: The Crooked Man will start shooting in Bulgaria later this year. It doesn’t currently have a release date.