Hellboy reboot being written with a proposed R-rating in mind.
When it was first announced that Hellboy would return to cinema screens without director Guillermo del Toro and lead actor Ron Pearlman, many fans of the franchise reacted in anger on social media but news has arrived to perhaps at least offer some hope for the reboot which is being helmed by director Neil Marshall and will star Stranger Things’ David Harbour in the titular role.
The film is to be titled, Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen and production will reportedly begin this coming September with location shoots set to take place in both the United Kingdom and Bulgaria. Speaking to The Verge, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola revealed that a new darker approach is intended for the film and that the script is being written as an R rated movie from the outset. Mignola stated that,
“It’ll lean in the horror direction, more so than the fantasy direction del Toro was doing. When Neil came on, we decided to go for an R rating so he doesn’t have his hands tied and so he can go as dark and as tough as he wants to go. I was a fan of his and when he came onboard I thought it was terrific. Now it’s really going to be an action-horror film. It’s not that we want to wallow in blood, but when you do a PG-13 rating, you bang your head into rules about how intense certain things can be. I think it helps that Deadpool and Logan were R-rated and what I’ve been telling people is that the tone of it will be much more the Logan approach; lean, dark, tough, and not something that stops to show limbs flying through the air.”
Whilst the film is in pre-production many things are still unknown but one thing that does seem certain is that Pearlman won’t be showing up for a cameo. When recently asked if he’d consider it by a fan via his Twitter account, the actor replied.
“When Hellboy freezes over.”
One star who will reportedly be joining the cast though is Ian McShane, who THR have reported will be playing Hellboy’s adoptive father Professor Broom, who was played by the late John Hurt in the del Toro films. McShane has recently been seen in Starz’ American Gods and has movie credits that include Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Hercules and also as Winston, the owner of the Continental Hotel in both John Wick films.