Looks like this is happening after all, though at Universal instead of Sony. Guillermo and Perlman are back, though Agent John Myers apparently isn't. The story is here, though since it comes from AICN you might want to take it with the usual grain of salt or two.

The title? Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.

Count me as somewhat excited. I liked the first one, more or less; Perlman's wisecracks, and the visual effects and art-deco, were entertaining.

Link to thread on the first film.

The trailer for Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is now available. You can stream it via MySpace or you can download it in HD from IGN.

The U.S. release is July 11, 2008.

Sweet.

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about this. The trailer is a lot of fun.

Might as well embed it...

The latest trailer is up... still looks like a lot of fun.

What's up with long-haired blonde men being portrayed as villains? Lucius Malfoy, the twins from the Matrix movies, the albino from the DaVinci Code...

Watching the original Hellboy on cable last month, I was struck by how little Hellboy himself actually appears onscreen (relatively speaking). Sure, he's there- but at times, clear, lingering shots of him are sparse. I wonder if the costume/make-up demands were so high that Perlman could only be featured on screen so much before the budget would be effected. At any rate, he appears more mobile now, judging by the new HB2 trailer.

Awesome new poster

CHUD's review:


On a sidenote, I've always thought Abe Sapiens was such a cool character, so I'm excited that he seems to be getting a slightly bigger role this time around, with even a hint of romance.

Thanks for the link, Jason. I'm really excited for this movie, and the CHUD review made me more excited.

Some of the little spoiler-ish things in the review were really intriguing, like

That's really sweet.

Best summer-movie teaser ever?

That's all kinds of funny. Or at least one kind of Funny.

rocks ty Jeffrey! 7 more days til the Del Torro smackdown!


spank this

And this here, an animated prologue to whats on the horizon ... courtesy of Dailymotion and plz take note: **** spoiler****



Click here!

I have to say, I love all of these little Hellboy II promos that are popping up, especially this one with Chuck and this one with James Lipton.

A great article on the film there at the Wired blog... what makes this one quite distinctive is that its with Mike Magnolia himself, creator of Hellboy and its vision. Its a nice piece, and some great concept art to boot. Note- might contain spoilers for some.

Click here!

Hellboy, Evil, and the Cross
The Hellboy sequel opening soon is just the latest in a long line of films about battling supernatural baddies—with the Cross often wielded as a weapon of goodness.
Steven D. Greydanus, CT Movies, July 8

Love it!

And I'm off to see it!

Awesome article, Stephen.

I'm really excited for this movie. This is one of the first times in years (really!) that I'm getting a big group of people together to go see it, on a nice screen with big comfy seats.

Thanks, all.

FWIW, it turns out that the themes of my article aren't all that applicable to Hellboy II... the vestigial Christian thing is basically nil here.

G-R-E-A-T article SDG! its economy is STUNNING! and great craft! wow! i am giddy its like a short summa .....dare i say are u channeling Aquinas?

The wife and I are seeing this one tomorrow on one of our rare "dates". She'd much rather watch something like this than a "chick flick" any day. Woo-hoo! (I say this as one who wasn't bowled over by the original Hellboy, but I at least "appreciated" a lot of what it was trying to do. And, y'know, these films do star Selma Blair. SELMA BLAIR. Yes, my wife knows.)

Twitch has a pretty extensive interview with Doug Jones, the guy behind Abe Sapiens (and a few other creatures). Included is some discussion of Jones' faith.

: Jones: I’ve been a lot of denominations over the years but I call myself a generic Christian, yes, and am attending a church now that would remind you of Catholicism. It’s more orthodox.

Oooo, is it safe to guess that he meant that with a capital-O?

UPDATE: I just read further in the interview and ... probably not. For a moment, some of the terms looked like they might point that way, but on second thought, some of the other bits don't. Ah well. It's a fascinating discussion all the same.

I was asked to see this movie yesterday, hours before it screened. I haven't seen the first Hellboy, so I was working only off what Wikipedia told me about the character.

Strange.

So...is the silence from Jeffrey a sign that he loved Hellboy 2? (Referencing his comment on the Wall*E thread)



(I am hopeful)

I was thinking the same thing. I am hopeful as well.

Like, yes. Love, mmm, no, not really.

It's better than the first one. It's one long demolition derby. It's the Star Wars cantina times one hundred. It's the funniest movie I've seen this year. And at least two of its scenes rate among the most inspired sequences in any superhero movie ever. (Hint: One involves a wall of lockers. The other involves Tecate.) Del Toro is brilliant in so many ways -- and for this movie he's brilliant in how he unleashes barely-controlled chaos and comedy. But if you're looking for Pan's Labyrinth-level storytelling, well, watch Pan's Labyrinth. But if you're looking for the best display of handcrafted monsters since The Dark Crystal, here it is.

Well, that's something at least.

I know I shouldn't get excited by this, but Harry Knowles raves about Hellboy 2, and I find myself getting more excited about it. And to top it off, Jeffrey "liked" it. How's that for getting your blood pumping?!

It's good enough to make me look forward to it.

Overstreet wrote:
: But if you're looking for Pan's Labyrinth-level storytelling, well, watch Pan's Labyrinth. But if you're looking for the best display of handcrafted monsters since The Dark Crystal, here it is.

Hmmm. So where does that leave your hopes for The Hobbit, which, like Hellboy, is a movie spin-off of an existing franchise, rather than an original work like Pan's Labyrinth?

This film only heightens my high hopes for The Hobbit, because I suspect he'll be back in good-storytelling mode, but he'll be even more prepared to make the fantastic creatures and landscapes of Middle Earth look convincing and mysterious.

AMENDMENT: I should add, before someone comes back shouting "CONVINCING?!", that there are quite a few creatures in this film that *aren't* convincing. Some of them just look like guys in funny costumes. And there's one little fellow in particular (I wouldn't really call him a "baby") that looks like a hand-puppet. But some of them, oh... wow. The death figure is extraordinary. If you liked Jabba's Palace, you'll probably like this movie.

One question I have... at one point the adventurers mention that they have to go to the Giant's Causeway in Ireland. I've been to the Giant's Causeway, and where they go... that ain't the Giant's Causeway. There's a nice aerial shot of the Cliffs of Moher, and then they end up in a place that looks like somewhere in the Burren, the rocky highland. But I never noticed the Causeway itself.

I've heard that the hobbits will all have eyes in their hands.

That's pretty much what I was expecting from the film... which isn't a bad thing at all, IMO.

Hmmm. GreenCine Daily's first round-up of reviews skews positive, and its second round-up skews not quite so positive, but nothing too alarming yet.

Peter cool links... if not quenching on the eve of the debut... i was tickled too by the observation of John Anderson in his Variety review.

" Not to disparage the f/x guys, but what's onscreen in "Hellboy II" is all about the seismic eruptions in del Toro's head. Comparing his work to most fantasy cinema is like comparing cave drawings to the Cathedral of Cologne."

sounds like a running for the promo copy on the dvd.. though i think Mike Mignola somehow deserves equal credit ..


Question to those in the know: of late i have seen this term "fan-boy" tossed around quite a bit from self effacing to a write off .... and now with seeing it used more than once in the reviews of Del Toro and Hellboy 2 . Is this term a complement? or a category in which to pigeon-hole and thereby distance his work from his more auteur-like endeavors exhibited in the likes of Devils Backbone And Pan's Lab..

and one more question.....

Jeffrey O as a film of the comic book genre (lol i sound like W.P Mayhew in Barton Fink ) now that u have seen both, which do u prefer Iron Man or Hell Boy.

Well, let me clarify: I've never read Iron Man comics, and I've only read two Hellboy comic books, so I'm a fan of the genre, yes, but not a comic book expert. I went to both of these films with next-to-zero knowledge of the characters and their backstories.

Neither film gave me much food for thought, and neither achieved any real transcendence for me, so I doubt I'll be purchasing either one for my collection.

Having said that: I think Iron Man is a better work of storytelling, and the better-made picture. It's simple, efficient, and slick. But Hellboy 2 is the movie I personally prefer. (Yes, I may be the only one here to have that preference.)

But I love monsters more than I love men in high-tech armor, generally. And I love the art of creature-making, as it was pioneered by Stan Winston and Jim Henson, more than the art of digital animation. And so Hellboy 2 is the movie I will pay to see more than once. I'm in awe of the handcrafted invention of this film.

And the two scenes in Hellboy 2 that I love best are more memorable, in my opinion, than the two scenes in Iron Man I love best.

Further... I'm wearying of the general comic book hero story (that Iron Man does so well). I'd much rather plunge into a mad, mad world of amazing monsters for two hours than watch another guy learn to fly and struggle with how to use his superpowers for good.

(By the way, one of the two main characters in Cyndere's Midnight is a big monster with a broken bone protruding from his forehead. I wrote this character years before I encountered Hellboy. Perhaps I should blog about that before the accusations begin.)

thank you Jeffery and also the gem " I'd much rather plunge into a mad, mad world of amazing monsters" =)

look forward to hearing about those two favorite scenes when its appropriate ... bah about ur concern about bone structure no worries, stay fortified
and let it be..i myself such comparison only aesthetic bean counting , many have tried such comparisons to invalidate Tolkien, Lewis and even the likes of Cormac McCarthy the work endures as i am know yours will too.

Jonathan Pacheco, TheHouseNextDoor.com:

A more significant lesson learned between the two films has to do with their villains: this time around, they actually have personality. While in the first film, del Toro struggled to make even the main baddie remotely interesting, Hellboy II is rich with interesting creatures, minions, and evil-doers. And it's not restricted to the bad guys alone; even the heroes are more interesting, all the boring characters weeded out. With Hellboy II, del Toro has gotten much closer to creating what I've always craved from him: a fully-realized world. The universe of the first Hellboy seemed too bland, and while Blade II did an honorable job with its mythos, the world of Pan's Labyrinth's was paper-thin. But once again, I see del Toro's success with Hellboy II as a stepping stone leading to The Hobbit, where rich and fleshed-out worlds are imperative and essential. And that's what we're all looking forward to, isn't it?

It's been interesting see how some critics think the first Hellboy was better while others think the second Hellboy is better. My own inclination is to say the second one is better, for the simply, uncomplicated reason that I felt more entertained by this film than I remember being by the first film.

Jacques wrote:
: Question to those in the know: of late i have seen this term "fan-boy" tossed around . . . Is this term a complement?

It depends on the context or manner in which it is used, I think. It's kind of like William Hurt saying he's a comic-book geek -- we wouldn't have expected it, based on his past film choices, but it's a term many comic-book geeks use to describe themselves, and in the context of Hurt co-starring in a film like The Incredible Hulk, a statement like that is a way for him to bond with the fans and persuade them that he didn't take the role just for the paycheque. But certainly there are much more abusive ways in which people could use the word "geek" if they were so inclined -- and there are also more unhealthy ways in which people could legitimately be described as "geeks".

Overstreet wrote:
: Having said that: I think Iron Man is a better work of storytelling, and the better-made picture. It's simple, efficient, and slick. But Hellboy 2 is the movie I personally prefer. (Yes, I may be the only one here to have that preference.)

Afraid not, old chap -- you've got me in your corner there, too.

In fact, after last night's screening, I told my wife that I think Hellboy II is my favorite of the comic-book movies so far this summer (hence better than Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Wanted -- have there been others?). I like aspects of Iron Man, but it has always felt to me like the pilot episode of a series that hasn't begun yet. It had first-movie syndrome, basically. The original Hellboy had that, to a point, too -- but Hellboy II is free to just get on with the story.

It's probably no coincidence that both Iron Man and Hellboy II get a lot of humorous mileage out of the romantic relationships, whereas Hulk is more angsty and Wanted doesn't really even have one.

That corner's getting crowded. I pulled up the most recent post, which is Peter's, and saw Jeffrey's post quoted, but haven't yet read his full post. Just wanted to chime in that, now that you mention this comparison, which hadn't occurred to me earlier -- yes, if I had to pick between those two films, I'd go with Hellboy 2 as well.

But Hellboy 2 won't make more $300 million at the North American box office.

Looks like I'll be the contrarian in the other corner.

I'll grant that Hellboy II has stuff that's more inspired than anything in Iron Man. So far, though, I find Iron Man's story more satisfying because it deals with what Roger Ebert's blog post this week talked about, redemption.

Tony Stark is a selfish jerk who is trying, clumsily, to come to terms with responsibility. Hellboy and his compadres fight bad guys, but it doesn't seem to matter to them. What do they stand for? I don't think they know yet. Maybe Tony doesn't either, but at least it bothers him.

As with several other middle movies from Dead Man's Chest to Matrix Reloaded, a lot will depend for me on where Hellboy goes next.

My review.

Good review...I find it interesting that even when disappointed, Hellboy seems to compel people to have hopes for a good sequel. It's like there is something mythical about the character that makes people believe there is something that may be worth expressing with the character-even if the viewer felt the current work did not accomplish it.

My view of Iron Man will depend a lot on where that series goes next.