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Ok ok, we’ve all said some not nice things about the upcoming film “Hellboy: The Crooked Man.” Most of it isn’t fully fair, especially since we haven’t actually SEEN the movie yet. But, with so much cinematic reference for the Mike Mignola-created Dark Horse character, we feel we’re allowed to be critical, just a bit.
Obviously the first time Big Red came to the big screen was back in 2004 from Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro. The character was brought to life in stunning fashion by Ron Perlman with an incredible makeup by Jake Garber. Seriously, he looked like he rose straight from the pages of the comics.
We got two films from GdT and Perlman, and everyone was hopeful for a third. That didn’t happen, but in 2019, we did get a new “Hellboy” from director Neil Marshall, with star David Harbour. It….wasn’t great. No real fault of Harbour’s, who did a great job playing a younger version of the title character. Much of his look was redesigned, using some of the signature swirly motifs from Mignola’s pages. A lackluster villain (played by Milla Jovovich) didn’t help.
Which brings us to the next chapter in the filmography for the character-
“Hellboy: The Crooked Man“
One of the most interesting things about this particular project is just how involved Mignola has been. Brian Taylor directs, from a script he wrote along with Christopher Golden and Mignola. It stars Jack Kesy as the title character, and the first few images and trailers were…not well received by fans, shall we say.
This morning, two new photos of Kesy were revealed, and we’re hopeful that maybe the resulting film subverts our current expectations.
“Hellboy: The Crooked Man” hits theaters August 15th. You can check out the teaser below:
