Originally published on Set The Tape
When looking at the last decade or so of cinema and the huge numbers of big budget comic book movies and multimedia shared universes it’s easy to forget when comic movies were first becoming a popular thing.
The early 2000s was when the genre was first making its way onto the big screen without being seen as a joke, with films such as Blade, X-Men and Spider-Man leading the charge for these films to be taken seriously again after the 90s saw a drop in popularity and acclaim with fairly disastrous Batman movies. With people wanting to see more comic book films on the screen there was a push to find more properties to adapt, and studios began to look outside of the ‘big two’ (Marvel and DC) to find source material.
One of the properties that stood out to studios looking to cash in on the popular, darker tone of successful movies like the Blade series, and the more serious natured approach to X-Men, was Dark Horse Comics‘ Hellboy. Originally having appeared in Dime Press #4 in 1993, the character of Hellboy quickly appeared in his own four issue mini-series, Hellboy: Seeds of Destruction, a year later.
This book would prove to be the spark that not only made a name for the character, but also began an entire universe. The Hellboy universe would begin fairly small, but over time new characters and new titles would be added, spawning spin-offs and events in a story that would go on for more than thirty years. The popularity of the series, and the fact that series creator Mike Mignola was already on board to bring it to the big screen alongside director Guillermo del Toro made the prospect an enticing one, though the road to get to the big screen wasn’t an easy one.
Del Toro wanted to make Hellboy before a single studio did, having discussed the idea of adapting it with Mignola in depth years before the project was given the go-ahead. Del Toro took the key storyline from the first Hellboy story, but altered several elements to better suit the big screen, including slightly altering Hellboy’s origins to better connect him with the films antagonists.
Most interestingly, during these early stages of development, del Toro had already cast his lead actor. Del Toro wrote the script with Ron Perlman as his only choice for the titular role, and made efforts to make the character work for him. Part of the choice in casting Perlman was due to his experience in extensive monster make-up, thanks to his work on the television series Beauty and the Beast, a series where Perlman also displayed his ability to convey nuance and emotion whilst hidden under prosthetics.
Whilst several studios initially rejected del Toro’s pitch to adapt the comic, with many executives not liking the very idea of the film, the push to get more comic movies made and on the screen ultimately helped. Del Toro was ready to make Hellboy in 1998, but it wasn’t until 2003 that a studio finally gave him the chance to make it.
The film loosely follows the story of the first graphic novel, and opens with the origin of Hellboy (Ron Perlman), a demon summoned by the Nazis, and the mystic Rasputin (Karel Roden), during an occult ritual on a remote Scottish island during World War Two. A group of Allied soldiers, along with a young occultist, manage to stop the ritual from being completed. Rasputin is sucked into a portal and lost forever, whilst a small demon baby with a right hand made from stone is found in the ruins. Sixty years later, the demon, now a man named Hellboy, works for the government institution the B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense). Having been raised by the young occultist, who he sees as his father, Hellboy fights to protect the world from paranormal threats and monsters.
Helping him in his mission is Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), a young woman with the power to create and control flames, who has a budding romance with Hellboy, and Abraham ‘Abe’ Sapien (played by Doug Jones and voice by David Hyde Pierce), a psychic fishman. The three of them are joined by a new agent, who has only just discovered the world of the paranormal and is in over his head, but acts as our audience ride-along character as we get to discover this world ourselves. When the team learn that Rasputin has returned from the demon realm he was lost to decades before, it begins a mission that has the fate of the world resting in the balance.
Despite having a built in fan-base, and the popularity of comic book movies at the time, Hellboy did not experience a smooth release. Being brought out during the Easter period, and with both Hell in the title and a demon as the hero, the film met protests from religious groups and businesses. Some toy chains refused to sell Hellboy merchandise, some theatres wouldn’t show the film, and certain markets in southern US areas changed the name of the film to ‘Helloboy’ to try and avoid demonic association. Despite these protests, the film received high critical and audience praise, and was nominated for several awards. The success of Hellboy would also see a sequel four years later that was even better received.
Whilst superheroes may have been dominating the comic book movie landscape at the time Hellboy offered audiences something different, and showcased to general audiences that comic books are a lot more that capes and tights.
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