Ron Perlman Reflects on Playing HELLBOY and Addresses The New Reboot
Ron Perlman was so much damn fun to watch as Hellboy in the films that Guillermo del Toro directed. He’s definitely my favorite version of the character and I don’t see how any other actor could top what he brought to the character. David Harbour was okay in the role, but his Hellboy movie was awful. Then there’s Jack Kesy, who is set to play him in the upcoming movie Hellboy: The Crooked Man. I have no idea what to expect from him.
During a recent interview with CB, Ron Perlman talked about his time playing Hellboy for Del Toro, saying:
"I was very happy with the version that Guillermo and I involved ourselves with. I thought we killed it, we knocked it out of the park."
Which they totally did! Fans would have loved to see that third Hellboy movie get made, but unfortunately, they never got the chance. I think they would have knocked that story out of the park as well. But, the franchise has moved forward with reboot attempts.
The next reboot, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, is getting a lot of buzz from those involved and creator Mike Mignola even said it’s the most faithful adaptation yet. Perlman was asked what he thought of the latest attempt at a Hellboy movie, and this is what he said:
"What happens with the character and the franchise on the periphery of any of that is none of my business. I prefer to just dwell in the feeling that I continue to have having played him and having played him for one of the great directors."
Great answer! Mignola and Chris Golden wrote the script for the new movie and the story is based on the comic of the same name, and in that story, 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.”
Brian Taylor (Crank, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Gamer) is directing the movie and when previously talking about the director, Mignola said:
“His intention is to make a horror movie, so that’ll be nice. That’ll be interesting. I read the new draft of the screenplay yesterday, and yes, it is definitely R. It’s the first Hellboy script that I read and I went, ‘Oh, it’s a horror movie,’ which is what I wanted. Taylor does not have a reputation as a horror movie director. But, so far, we’ve had two horror movie directors make Hellboy movies and we’ve never gotten a horror movie.
“For years, we’ve been saying, if you’re going to make a Hellboy movie, make it small. And the perfect story to do that with is my personal favorite, ‘The Crooked Man.’ I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever written. It’s beautifully illustrated by Richard Corben, and it’s a solid story that doesn’t involve a million different characters. Everybody actually agreed from the very beginning, ‘Yes, we want to do that one.’ Budget-wise, it’s good because it’s a lower budget kind of a story. It’s not the Hellboy origin. It’s not Hellboy saving the world. It’s not huge. It’s a subtle, dark, little folk horror story.”
Hellboy: The Crooked Man has completed shooting and will land an R-rating. When talking about that rating, the director 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.”
The project recently wrapped production and after it wrapped, Mignola said: "If fans have been waiting for a Hellboy film that is actually an adaptation of one of my stories I think they are finally going to get one.”
Perlman can next be heard voicing Optimus Primal in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.