But there is a sadder, darker side to the Hollywood/comics relationship. You see, sometimes you can make a very successful indie superhero movie that everyone enjoys greatly despite its flaws, and have your studio go out of business, leaving everyone bravely saying, “Someone will put it out!” In the case of HELLBOY 2 there’s a happy ending after all, as Universal has signed on! :
Universal Pictures will fully finance and distribute “Hellboy 2,” the Guillermo del Toro-directed sequel to the 2004 Dark Horse Comic-spawned film.
Studio picks up a project orphaned by Revolution Studios, which made the original and distributed through its deal at Columbia Pictures. With Revolution out of business, the sequel became available and Universal slotted it for summer 2008.
Ron Perlman returns as Hellboy, and filming begins in April in Prague and London. “There are few properties which offer this unique blend of action, humor and character-based spectacle,” said U Pictures chairman Marc Shmuger.
And you know something? He’s right!!!
Universal’s got a good history with this kind of thing. They also rescued Joss Whedon’s “Firefly” from Fox, bringing us “Serenity.” And while the box office wasn’t what it might have been, at least we got a great flick out of it.
Here’s hoping “Hellboy 2” is a smash! The first one was a lot of fun!
“Hellboy” was maligned, and portrayed as (somehow) less competent than “Daredevil”. It was a very enjoyable genre flick.
Hellboy is probably my most re-watched recent comic book movie, with X-men 2 being the exception.
I’m glad Universal picked this up, here’s hoping they can keep this going.
Holy shit, Revolution is out of business? No wonder this was a big deal at AICN. I’d love to see #2 be darker, more real supernatural, more scary as hell imagery, like the comic. The first one was sufficient for newbies, now let’s get the real Mignola stuff on screen.
Damn, that’s the best news I’ve heard all day!!!