David Harbour as Hellboy in the 2019 film.

Image: Lionsgate

Big Red is coming back to theaters. Deadline confirmed that a new Hellboy movie, subtitled The Crooked Man, is about to start production. Earlier in the week, rumors began swirling around about its existence courtesy of Discussing Film, but distributor Millennium (which bought the film rights for Hellboy in 2018) disclosed some more details about it at the EFM festival in Berlin.

The Crooked Man will be another reboot—Hellboy’s second, after the 2019 film starring David Harbour was a reboot of Guillermo del Toro’s 2000s movies—with Crank director Brian Taylor at the helm. In the film, Hellboy and a rookie BPRD agent will travel to a rural Appalachia during the 1950s. Upon arrival, they discover that a witch coven is haunting the locals, and are led by the titular Crooked Man, a devil that has connections to Hellboy’s past. The film will draw influence from 2008’s graphic novel of the same name that original creator Mike Mignola and Richard Corben made in 2008 to coincide with the release of Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Production is expected to start in March in Bulgaria. In a first for the films, Mignola will be co-writing its script with frequent collaborator Chris Golden. Millenium president Jeffrey Greenstein was quick stress that Mignola’s involvement would make Crooked Man the best adaptation of the bunch. “Mike Mignola and the creator of the comics will finally shepherd an authentic version of his stories and characters in film form,” said Greenstein. “This is the first in the series of films that will captivate audiences in familiar (and new) ways.”

At time of writing, neither a cast or release date for Hellboy: The Crooked Man has been disclosed. Hopefully the metaverse won’t be involved in this film’s promotion.


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