I think it's fair to say, I'm a bit of a Hellboy fan. I also think it's fair to say, Hellboy is no doubt one of the coolest and most creative comic book characters of all time. He is a demon from hell who is meant to bring about the destruction of the world. He was brought into this world by Nazis to change the tide of World War II. Hellboy was founded by Americans and was raised by a catholic scientist. Hellboy helps protected humanity against the things that goes bump into the night. Hellboy has had 2 live action films that have been well received by fans and critics but haven't done well in the box office. Can you blame them when the first film had to go up against
Passion of the Christ and the second
The Dark Knight? Who wouldn't lose against Batman & Jesus? Recently Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman, has been going on Twitter getting fans to spread the word and getting
Hellboy III moving . He recently talked with ComicBook about admitting to get
Hellboy 3 off the ground and made.
Where does it [Hellboy 3] stand right now?
Ron Perlman: It’s not dead. It’s not alive. I’ve been talking about this now for a couple of years, every opportunity I’ve got and I don’t know what prompted me to put it out there on Twitter the other day. But the response has been pretty dramatic. It’s very heartwarming. People should definitely take notice - the people who care about fanbases and stuff like that. After all, those are the guys who make what we do possible. I really, I’m just completely overwhelmed and thank you for your help. I know you caught on to what I was doing and actually enhanced it.
What can the fans do to help get Hellboy III moving and bring it to life?
Ron Perlman: I think what they’ve been doing the past couple of days. I mean, in 48 hours since I dropped that post, I’ve never seen… I’ve been on social media for, I guess, a couple of years, Facebook very recently, I’ve never seen anything with a response to this degree. So, this struck a nerve and the fact that there is a nerve to strike, is one pawn. You have to absolutely take that into account. The fans are doing what they’re supposed to do. Anybody who follows me has been quite vociferous about their passion for seeing this trilogy evolve to where it was meant to evolve to, including yours truly.
Speaking of del Toro, he’s hinted a couple of different things about Hellboy III. One of those is Hellboy needing to become the Beast of the Apocalypse to defeat his main foe. Is this something you’re still aiming for?
Ron Perlman: Well, Guillermo has been very deliberate to not tell me anything because he knows what a big mouth I have. I’m fine with that but he has hinted at certain things that are kind of obvious. Shelby has been summoned into our world with one purpose. It’s almost like he’s a Greek oracle. It’s something one can negotiate one’s way out of and his purpose was to destroy mankind. That’s his purpose and the fact that he was brought up and nurtured to utilize his powers for positive effects rather than negative ones is a big discussion. That’s what makes the Hellboy discussion compelling. It’s this classic nature versus nurture dialectic. The Oracle is so vast, though. There’s no wiggle room in it. He’s destined to do this.
Obviously, it’s gonna be this internal struggle within himself as to who wills out here. Then we you have the birth of these two twins, seeing how they figure into the story, seeing whether they come out as demons or humans or permutations of both, there’s an awful lot of things that have been set up in the first two films. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking forward to spending 4 to 6 hours a day in make-up and about 16 hours on the set, playing this guy, but I really feel like we have an obligation to finish this. We asked the patience of an awful lot of very devoted fans. We’re clearly not the biggest blockbuster financially that ever came down the pipe with other comic book movies, but I think all that’s bulls—.
I think we asked fans to come along on a journey with us and there was a promise made that we would complete the journey. The reason why I go about this is that I feel like we’re obligated to. I don’t care how much the movie costs. If it costs $600, let’s finish the f—king story and then movie on. It doesn’t have to cost a gazillion dollars. It’d be nice if it was as epic as what Guillermo has in mind and that would take some resources but the fans have shown this amazing devotion and passion and intensity. Guys like you and me, we can do stuff to raise their voices and show these guys, yes, there is an audience. As long as they believe there’s an audience, that’s how checks get written.
Another thing Guillermo hinted at was Hellboy dying by end of the third film. I know you can’t say much about what will happen but would you be okay with saying goodbye to the character in such a permanent way?
Ron Perlman: Let me be very clear - there will not be a Hellboy 4. The only reason I’m obsessed with making Hellboy III is because it was always meant to be a trilogy. At the end of III, the story should conclude. I’m not for open ended franchises. I’m just one for if something was meant to be done in three acts, you can’t stop at the end of the second. That’s like blue balls, you know?
Is there any super hero or super villain you would want to jump into after Hellboy?
Ron Perlman: I really believe that after Hellboy there is no reason for me to entertain that idea. Hellboy was kind of tailor-made for me. He’s an underachiever. He’s a complete miss. He loves pizza, beer, smoking cigars, hanging out. He’s got his own dirty laundry and fifty five cats. You know, this was like a love letter to Ron Perlman and a lot of what Guillermo did when he was trying to merge the character that Mike Mignola created into a traditional comic world in making him three dimensional, he borrowed a lot of my own sick, twisted personality traits. It made it look like I wasn’t acting. He’s the only super hero I’ll ever need to play or I will ever want to play. And I’m way to old to entertain playing any other thing anyway. I’m almost way too old to finish this trilogy. I would prefer to not do Hellboy III from a wheelchair.
In case anyone was wondering: why hasn't
Hellboy III happened yet? Well basically when the film's director, Gullimero del Toro, received numerous praise and awards for his film
Pan's Labyrinth. Due to his film receiving universal acclaim and winning numerous awards, he was able to sweet talk Universal into making
Hellboy II: The Golden Army. They agreed on financing the picture, but said they wouldn't do a third Hellboy film. Years later, a 6 year old kid by the name of Zachary was undergoing treatment for leukemia. Together with Make A Wish, his wish was to meet Hellboy in which Perlman but the horns and right hand of dome back on and visited the kid. It was a heartwarming story which inspired del Toro to try again with Hellboy 3. With a script done, he pitched it to numerous stories with the budget of 120 million and no one was sold.
While working on
Pacific Rim, Del Toro has made a new found friendship with Legendary Picture's founder and CEO, Thomas Tull, when Legendary financed half of
Pacific Rim. Tull said he would want to see a third Hellboy film happen. Legendary will be financing Del Toro's upcoming
Crimison Peak and
Pacific Rim 2. So basically if a third Hellboy does happen, it will likely be Legendary that's involved. What are your thoughts? Comment below, let me know. Peace.