Cult-classic comic book hero Hellboy is heading back to the silver screen with Hellboy: The Crooked Man, a live-action movie adaptation of the 2008 comic storyline of the same name. Per Deadline, Crank director Brian Taylor will direct The Crooked Man with production set to begin in Bulgaria next month, and original creator Mike Mignola has written the script alongside Dark Horse Comics’ Chris Golden. Casting discussions are in the late stages, so we hopefully won’t have to wait too long to see who will play the titular action hero.
Deadline provided the first details on Hellboy: The Crooked Man’s story: “The new film will see Hellboy and a rookie BPRD agent 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.”
Hellboy: The Crooked Man is being overseen by Millennium Media in association with Dark Horse Entertainment. Nu Boyana is handling production in association with Campbell Grobman Film. Mike Richardson is attached as a producer along with Jeffrey Greenstein, Jonathan Yunger, Les Weldon, Rob Van Norden, and Yariv Lerner. Executive producers include Mignola, Avi Lerner, Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson, Tanner Mobley, Lati Grobman, and Christa Campbell, with Sam Schulte co-producing for Millennium.
“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,” Millennium president Jeffrey Greenstein said. “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.”
The last live-action Hellboy movie is a film that many have already chosen to forget. Titled Hellboy, the 2019 project was directed by Neil Marshall and was meant to serve as a franchise reboot following the two Ron Perlman Hellboy films from the mid-2000s. Although the most recent outing picked Stranger Things’ David Harbour to lead as the half-man, half-devil hero himself, the flick was panned by critics and fans alike. At the very least, most would agree that Harbour’s take on the character failed to capture the magic from the previous two cult classics. We’ll see if Hellboy: The Crooked Man can bring the character back into good standing among fans.
