For better or worse, another Hellboy remake is in the works, but at least this time fans are excited by the prospect because it already has an R rating. The live-action remake will be directed by Brian Taylor and reimagine one of the most beloved stories from the comic book source material.
The working title right now is Hellboy: The Crooked Man. That story, in the comics at least, follows Hellboy and a rookie from the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. The two are “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,” according to IGN.
In the comics, the crooked man was an eighteenth-century miser and war profiteer named Jeremiah Witkins, who was hanged for his crimes yet returned from Hell as the region’s resident Devil. One main difference between this film version of Hellboy and its predecessors: Hellboy creator Mike Mignola wrote the script, something that didn’t happen in previous iterations.
Millennium Media President Jeffrey Greenstein said this version would be unlike anything that came before it.
“The Crooked Man is a departure from all previous Hellboy films where Mike Mignola and the creator of the comics will finally shepherd an authentic version of his stories and characters in film form. This is the first in the series of films that will captivate audiences in familiar (and new) ways. Brian Taylor is an expert across the board, and I couldn’t think of a better person to bring this story to life to show our audience this different and original Hellboy slate of films.”
Taylor said he loves the character and The Crooked Man is his “favorite run” of Hellboy from that era. According to Collider, he also said the previous movies never really got the tone right.
The [Guillermo Del Toro] movies were massive scale space operas and just pure Del Toro through and through. But some of the comics Mike (Mignola) was doing at the time had a very different feeling. More lean and mean, creepy folk horror. A younger Hellboy, wandering the dark corners of the world… Paranormal investigator, night stalker… The Crooked Man in particular is just such an iconic book—written by Mike, drawn by Richard Corben, another legend. Set in the late 50s. For me it’s my favorite version of the character. So the appeal of this one to me, is to go back to that and do a real reset, and really give us that version of Hellboy, which I just don’t think we’ve seen yet.”
Ron Perlman, who looks like a Maine Coon cat, starred in 2004’s Hellboy and 2008’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army. In 2019, David Harbour (Stranger Things) starred in a reboot that was widely panned.
Filming for the new movie begins in April.