Tagline: Believe it or not, he’s the good guy.
The sequel to the 2003 movie based on Mike Mignola’s Dark Horse comic character. Ron Perlman returns to the title role as Hellboy, a humanoid creature born in the flames of Hell and brought to Earth as an infant. Raised in secret, the adolescent “HB” becomes an agent for the secret Bureau for Paranormal Research and Development (BPRD), a covert government agency which serves as the planet’s line of defense against otherworldly evil. Selma Blair will also reprise the role of Liz Sherman, a pyrokinetic human who is HB’s colleague and love interest.
“Hellboy 2” will expand the world of Hellboy and surround him with characters both new and familiar as he confronts a deadly threat to mankind. With a signature blend of action, humor and character-based spectacle, the saga of the world’s toughest, kitten-loving hero from Hell continues to unfold in “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.” Bigger muscle, badder weapons and more ungodly villains arrive in an epic vision of imagination from Oscar-nominated director Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Hellboy”).
After an ancient truce existing between humankind and the invisible realm of the fantastic is broken, hell on Earth is ready to erupt. A ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below defies his bloodline and awakens an unstoppable army of creatures. Now, it’s up to the planet’s toughest, roughest superhero to battle the merciless dictator and his marauders. He may be red. He may be horned. He may be misunderstood. But when you need the job done right, it’s time to call in Hellboy.
Production Information
In 2004, visionary writer/director Guillermo Del Toro brought Mike Mignola’s comic-book hero Hellboy (Ron Perlman of Blade II, Alien: Resurrection) to the screen. The overly muscled occult detective, complete with horns, tail and hard-boiled attitude, was an everyman who’d become a favorite of fanboys around the world, including del Toro. Del Toro introduced the reluctant crimefighter to a global audience with the feature Hellboy, and his film’s wit, action and ingenious practical effects launched a critical and commercial hit for comic lovers and general audiences alike.
The filmmaker’s epic odyssey continues with the action-thriller Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the feature follow-up to his 2006 triple Oscar-winning masterpiece, Pan’s Labyrinth. Bringing bigger muscle, badder weapons, multitudes of monsters and a little domestic conflict at home, our favorite kitten-loving red hero is back. And this time, he kicks even more evil ass.
Hellboy fights the good fight when duty calls from his employer: the top-secret Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (a clandestine bureau created in 1943 by Roosevelt that uses secret technology, mysterious powers and a network of operatives with otherworldly powers to defend the world against the more violent supernatural-also known as the B.P.R.D.). He would, however, much rather kick back with a cigar, six-pack, his pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair of Legally Blonde, In Good Company) and their clutter of cats. But destiny has bigger plans for them.
After an ancient truce between humankind and the original sons of the Earth is broken, all hell is about to break loose. The anarchical underworld Prince Nuada (Luke Goss of Blade II, Unearthed) has grown weary of centuries of deference to mankind. He plots to awaken a long-dormant army of killing machines that will return what belongs to his people; all magical creatures shall finally be free to roam again. Now, only Hellboy can stop the dark ruler and save our world from annihilation.
Joining the wise-cracking, amber-eyed demon and his flammable girlfriend are returning principal Hellboy cast-including the bureau’s brilliant aquatic empath Abe Sapien (Doug Jones of Pan’s Labyrinth, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) and B.P.R.D. bureaucrat Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor of Superhero Movie, Arrested Development).
Acclaimed actor John Hurt (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, V for Vendetta) is also back for the latest chapter in the franchise as Hellboy’s surrogate dad (and savior from the Nazis) Professor Trevor Broom. New to the team is the now public face of the formerly clandestine B.P.R.D., protoplasmic mystic Johann Krauss, a role shared by John Alexander (Mighty Joe Young, Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey) and newcomer James Dodd; Krauss is voiced by Seth MacFarlane, creator of Fox’s smash-hit Family Guy and the man behind many of that show’s signature voices.
About the Characters
Hellboy
Born in the flames of hell and brought to Earth as an infant to perpetrate evil, Hellboy was rescued from occult Nazi forces by the benevolent Dr. Trevor Broom who raised him to be the unlikeliest of heroes. Now, it’s up to the planet’s toughest, roughest, kitten-loving superhero to battle a merciless prince and his army of marauders. He may be red, horned and misunderstood, but when you need the job done right, it’s time to call in Hellboy. It doesn’t hurt that the enormous red bruiser brings his right hand of doom (a virtual “sledgehammer” in the form of an invulnerable red stone attached to his forearm). If that doesn’t do the trick, he’s got “Big Baby,” a shotgun/revolver hybrid with bullets as big as baby food jars.
Liz
Pyrokinetic Liz Sherman has only begun to embrace the awesome powers that first manifested themselves at the age of 11 and tragically claimed the lives of her family. Shunned as a child because of her gifts, the shy Liz found not only a home in the B.P.R.D., but the love of her life in Hellboy. Tired of feeling like a freak, Liz warily accepts her team’s new role as no-longer-hidden heroes. When needed, she chants: “The fire is not my enemy, it is a part of me,” to unleash a barrage of flaming bolts upon any enemy who threatens friends or innocents.
Abe
An aquatic empath who is almost 150 years old, the brilliant Abe Sapien has the psychogenic power to read objects and know their past or the future. The consummate gentleman, Abe’s inordinate kindness is matched only by his passion for delectable, rotten eggs. The Ichthyo Sapien must use an Aqua-Lung to provide oxygen to his body when outside water and holds a very special place in his heart for the mysterious Princess Nuala who shares some of his gifts and his sense of justice.
Johann
The newest member of the B.P.R.D., Johann Krauss is a protoplasmic mystic who can briefly take control of entities, both mechanical and organic, and reactivate their neural senses. Schooled in the art of teleplasty and clad in a thick containment suit that holds in his gaseous ectoplasm, Johann’s ability to inhabit the inanimate will serve Hellboy, Liz and Abe quite well as they search for the monsters who go bump in the night…
Manning
Special Agent Tom Manning, chief FBI liaison to the B.P.R.D., has spent decades suppressing the existence of the secret group of superheroes from the public. Though he has averted many a PR catastrophe for the team (and parried endless fodder from tabloids eager to report on a devil-man), S.A. Manning has finally been pushed over the edge by Hellboy’s exploits in Manhattan. Now that the B.P.R.D. has been unveiled to a stunned world, Manning’s job is on the line, and Washington has demanded Johann Krauss to be the new public face for the formerly secret agency.
Prince Nuada
A ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below, Prince Nuada has defied his bloodline to awaken an unstoppable army of creatures known as the Golden Army. He has returned from exile to the kingdom of Bethmoora to reclaim the land and the freedom he believes has been taken from his people. To make it happen, Nuada knows he will need the help of the good, the bad…and the worst.
Princess Nuala
The willowy, timeless beauty Princess Nuala has an uncanny resemblance to her brutal twin brother, Prince Nuada-down to the fine scars that mar her perfect face. She is the benevolent yin to her brother’s wicked yang. The favored child of King Balor, Nuala is entrusted with the final piece of the Royal Crown of Bethmoora, a gold treasure that will either bring peace to the universe, or reign destruction upon it.
Wink
Prince Nuada’s monstrous troll henchman, Mr. Wink, does the bidding of his vicious master-no matter how violent the instructions. From helping to set free a horde of fanged tooth fairies on an innocent crowd to scouring the Troll Market looking for a fight, Wink is a huge slab of an ugly creature. His gigantic club fist and extendable iron mace is quite the match for Hellboy and his right hand of doom.
The Angel of Death
The timeless and terrifying Angel of Death has been waiting in her underground lair for untold years to bear a mysterious prophecy to Liz and Hellboy…one that will affect their today and the future of the world. With a heart only of dust and sand-and only the occasional company of the Bethmoora Goblin-she will give two members of the B.P.R.D. a choice: gain new life or usher in an era of death.
Bigger, Badder… Still Red: Hellboy Returns
Hellboy’s first adventures were published by Dark Horse Comics in 1994. Guillermo del Toro’s debut as a feature film director came a year earlier with the critically acclaimed horror film Cronos, starring Ron Perlman as the thug in search of an immortality device. As del Toro’s work gained international attention, he kept his eye on Mignola’s creation as a possible future project. “I had always been a Mike Mignola fan,” the director offers. “I fell in love with the brooding, Gothic, atmospheric work he was doing. When I was shooting Mimic in 1997, the best part of the day was going to the comic book shop to look for more Hellboy issues. By then, I thought it was taking a direction that made sense for a movie.”
Del Toro admits he envisioned a filmed version of Hellboy just the way that Mignola wrote him in his comics: “a blue-collar guy-a plumber or an electrician-who comes in with a box of tools and says, `Where is the leak?’ and goes at fixing the leak. But he is a very jaded, reluctant investigator; his method of investigation is to beat the crap out of a monster.”
The filmmaker’s interest in turning the demon into a film star surprised the pragmatic Mignola, who thought the tales of his antiheroes would forever stay on the page. “I never in a billion years believed Hellboy would be a movie, and when it was discussed, I said, `Sure, good luck.’ But when I met Guillermo, I knew right away that if anyone was going to do it, I sure as hell hoped it would be him. We agreed right away that Hellboy had to be Ron Perlman.”
In a world of caped heroes who sport chiseled good looks and profess all-American values, audiences found it refreshing to have a good guy look so, well, bad. Provides producer Mike Richardson, “Hellboy is not your traditional superhero. This is a character who has horns and a tail and looks like the devil; he shaves his horns off to try and look as human as possible. He’s a blue-collar hero who just wants to be one of us.”
During the five years of development before Hellboy was greenlit, the creative team behind the project kept its focus. “In this period, a number of offers to make Hellboy came in,” recalls blockbuster producer Lawrence Gordon, “but it was about five years before Guillermo had the commercial track record for us to get the movie made in the way he imagined it. His artistic credibility and success in the films he created during that time-The Devil’s Backbone and Blade II-clinched that.”
The first film, starring Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones and Jeffrey Tambor as members of the elite B.P.R.D. was produced by Revolution Studios with Dark Horse Entertainment, Lawrence Gordon Productions and Starlite Films. It was met with solid commercial success and acheived $100 million at the global box office, as well as finding an enormous audience through DVD sales.
With impressive figures for the action-thriller and del Toro’s growing international acclaim from the adult fairy tale Pan’s Labyrinth, del Toro had the pull to get the second chapter in Hellboy’s continuing adventures greenlit. Changes in the film business, however, would bring the Hellboy sequel to a new studio. “Because Revolution closed shop, we were able to bring the sequel back to Universal where, many years before, we had originally started developing Hellboy,” says producer Lloyd Levin. “The possibility of making the sequel at Universal was a thrill for us because we always loved the idea that Hellboy could be part of the great legacy of Universal Monsters.”
This time, del Toro wanted to tell Red’s (Liz’s nickname for Hellboy) developing story on a grander scale, including many more practical creatures that inhabited the universe Mignola had created. The man producer Gordon says “eats, sleeps and breathes film,” admits he aspired to bring Hellboy to both the dark corners of the fairy-tale world and out in the open to a blissfully ignorant public. As before, he designed at least half of his imagined goblins, trolls and creatures of the night to be played by actors in elaborately designed prosthetic makeup. Puppeteers would enhance the range of their movements with radio-controlled animatronics.
“Mignola’s universe demands a strong physical component to the creatures,” says del Toro. Especially when that world also includes creatures who have sprung from del Toro’s imagination: such as Prince Nuada’s faithful henchman, the troll Wink; the enigmatic, winged Angel of Death; and an array of other goblins, chamberlains and nasties.
As del Toro drafted the sequel’s screenplay, he knew he again needed to infuse CGI to step in when practical effects were not possible. Double Negative Visual Effects came on board to execute his vision of the merciless robotic Golden Army that King Balor, the one-armed ruler of Bethmoora, had created a millennium ago, as well as the unstoppable Elemental creature and other fantasy effects.
For Hellboy II, del Toro and Mignola also wanted more layers to the story than they were able to achieve in Hellboy, as they didn’t have to worry about the origin story that the first film well covered. “Mythology and folklore have always been present in the `Hellboy’ comics, and we didn’t go there in the first film,” Mignola notes. “So instead of Rasputin, Nazis, mad scientists and H.P. Lovecraft-type stuff, we went for the supernatural.”
After working out the storyline with Mignola, del Toro spent two-and-a-half years writing the screenplay for Hellboy II: The Golden Army. He ignored the usual sequel conventions, as the background story had been clearly established in the first film and focused the script on the throughline of a dark fairy tale in which the world of magical creatures who have lived underneath humans for centuries finally have enough and start a rebellion. It was time for Hellboy to make a choice: which side of the war is he on?
“There was no need to recap or re-explain who everyone is,” del Toro provides. “We just get on with it. It’s a completely new story, a dark, poignant fairy tale. You can take the most dire, melodramatic arc and plug it into a movie, but as long as you’re acting it with monsters, it already has another meaning. The beauty of these stories is that, in an unrecognizable universe, you have very recognizable human emotions.”
Saving the world is a hell of a job, but Hellboy is ready; it’s what he was born to do. Help comes to Red with an assortment of fellow freaks, ensconced in a high-tech bunker at the B.P.R.D.’s New Jersey headquarters. Officially, the organization doesn’t exist, but a few stunned civilians have glimpsed the burly red gunslinger and his otherwordly cohorts in action. And like it or not, it’s time Hellboy met the public.
When last we met, Hellboy had saved humanity from a centuries-old mad monk who was hell-bent on raining destruction upon Earth. Now, he’s about to face a prince who’s been biding his time until he can lead the creatures of the dark to take back what used to be theirs. On the personal front, Hellboy is having an even tougher time at home. He and Liz have been together for about a year, and the honeymoon is decidedly over.
With the script in place, the filmmakers would begin the search for the monsters and freaks who fit naturally into Hellboy’s universe. Fortunately, it took little more than a phone call to get the close-knit original cast back in their B.P.R.D. uniforms.
B.P.R.D. to Bethmoora: Casting the Film
Hellboy wouldn’t be Hellboy without Ron Perlman returning in the title role. Fortunately, the actor was up for getting back into the boots of his favorite role, a character he describes as “a complete underachieving, lazy slob…a beer-drinking, football-watching average American guy who has no desire to be a superhero,” explains Perlman. “He just happens to have these abilities commensurate with where he’s from and who he is. His idea of a perfect day is pizza and beer and watching The Three Stooges and Marx Brothers movies. His extraordinary superhuman traits are coincidental and not something he aspires to.”
Perlman also looked forward to working again with his longtime director. Of del Toro, he states, “The depth of his intellect and accumulated knowledge, based on this voracious curiosity to read anything about why people need to tell stories-including all types of mythology from all cultures-is what sets him apart.” Also, he agreed with the filmmaker’s fascination to tell this type of story. “Guillermo is a great storyteller, because he understands the need for people to pass down fables and myths, as well as to look at the huge, errors that are made by humans as a result of their frailties and vulnerabilities.”
Del Toro also knew Hellboy couldn’t return without his sarcastic romantic sidekick, Liz, back for another round of dazzling pyrokinesis. Perlman’s partner in crime fighting would again be actress Selma Blair, the only performer the director and producers felt could do Liz justice. Says del Toro, “In the comic, Liz is always very brooding, very dark, distant; she’s never relaxed. Selma nailed that.”
Blair respected the fact that fans of the comic book and film franchise have a special place in their hearts for Liz. The pyrokinetic remained beautiful, yet untouchable, to anyone for fear that she would accidentally harm them…until she met Hellboy. Blair reflects, “Hellboy has some really die-hard fans, and all of us are grateful that their devotion has given us the chance to tell the story with Guillermo.”
As Liz and Red move into a relationship, they are coping with the same irritations as most couples…plus some unique issues that occur when a recovering demon falls in love with a fire starter. “Petty things are really amplified when you have superpowers,” laughs Blair, whose character has finally come to embrace the pyrokinetic energy that used to threaten everyone who came near. “When Hellboy and Liz have a row, it’s not just, `Okay, I’m going for a walk, see you later,’” she explains. “It’s more like, `I’m going to blow up this damn kitchen and will see you later.’”
Again cast as the rotten-egg-eating, brilliant aquatic empath Abe Sapien was actor and movement specialist Doug Jones. Of his character, del Toro explains: “Being half fish and half mammal, Abe possesses a unique frontal lobe. Much like a dolphin’s, it can receive and transmit information and images locked in objects or people. Abe is also the egghead of the group in terms of occult knowledge.”
Before and since his first Hellboy film, the longtime del Toro collaborator has carved out a fascinating niche in creature performance. Recently, as both Pale Man and the title character in Pan’s Labyrinth, intergalactic indentured servant Norin Radd in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and a series of irradiated imps battling The Rock in DOOM, the 6’4” Jones had been keeping quite busy.
Foremost, Jones was happy to tackle Abe again as, frankly, “there was much more to do this time.” He reflects, “Abe has so much more decision-making and character development…and he wields a weapon this time.” Jones laughingly adds, “Me with a gun-that’s funny.”
Jones also appreciated the fact that his water-dwelling character would finally get a chance to experience true love, this time with the enchanting Princess Nuala. The only problem is that she’s eternally connected to her evil twin. Jones reflects, “What a first love does to a person and their decision-making powers…it makes us silly in our adolescence. Abe’s going through a certain adolescent period of life, and it’s a nice chance to revisit those teenage years.”
Tasked to not play only Abe, a process that took up to five hours a day in the makeup chair, Jones agreed to portray both the fleshy court Chamberlain, who lives in service to King Balor, as well as the elusive, multiwinged Angel of Death, who offers an unimaginable choice to Liz. Compliments fellow B.P.R.D. member Perlman of Jones’ flexibility in roles: “Doug truly amazes me. He’s one of these guys that the more you give him to do, the more he’ll amaze you. He’s such a humble, soft-spoken guy who never calls attention to himself. He gives each role major thought and has the ability to execute it every time. If you do 30 takes with Doug, they’re all going to be good.”
To add insult to Hellboy’s injury, the agency’s Washington bosses have saddled the B.P.R.D. with a new leader, one who can contain the damage from Hellboy’s accidental “outing” of the agency to the public. No longer can the team hide in Trenton, New Jersey, under the guise of the Squeaky Clean Management Company. Once a flesh-and-blood human, Dr. Johann Krauss now exists only as ectoplasmic gas inside a containment suit. He’s a by-the-book type, and expects the same from his team, especially the grousing Hellboy. Unfortunately for him, every time he issues an edict in his crisp German accent, Hellboy sees red.
The voice of Krauss is provided by Seth MacFarlane, and the movements are shared by John Alexander (who also plays the Bethmoora Goblin) and James Dodd. Dodd explains the look of his character: “Johann’s in a containment suit, which looks like one of those old-fashioned deep-sea diving suits, and he’s got a head with a glass bubble on it. Years ago, he went from a human form into ectoplasm and created this containment suit, so-in a more humanoid form-he’d be more readily accepted by people. He has special powers and can reanimate objects by flipping open a finger cap on his gloves, releasing ectoplasmic smoke into the dead and ask questions of it.” Curiously, Dodd had to navigate this world while gazing through a glass pane that would occasionally fog up on him.
Also returning to the series as B.P.R.D. agent Tom Manning, the bureaucrat whose sole purpose is to keep Hellboy in check, is Jeffrey Tambor. Tambor, who wasn’t allowed to read comics as a child, has had a chance to catch up on his youth after these outings with del Toro. He offers an astute theory about the appeal of the property to fans: “What I like about all these creatures is that I think we all think we’re ugly and we all think we’re monsters…yet we have great love in us. That’s the thing that we overcome the most, and it’s a hard thing to do. So, I don’t think there’s anybody who cannot relate to Hellboy. We’re all Hellboy, Liz and Abe. A few of us are Tom Manning. Thankfully.”
Everything shifts for the B.P.R.D. after it responds to an emergency at an Upper East Side auction house in Manhattan. Each team member is stretched to the limit by the chain of cataclysmic events unleashed on that rainy September night by one very ticked-off son of the earth: Prince Nuada Silverlance, exile of the Bethmoora Kingdom. The self-appointed revolutionary of the elves, fairiefolk and creatures of the shadows has been subsiding on the crumbs of the industrialized world, while his beloved planet withers under human masters. It was not always so, and the prince is determined to change the balance of power, even if it means defying his father and endangering his beloved twin sister.
“The Prince is a great villain because he is very dangerous and a great fighter, but he also happens to have a strong moral stand on what he does and why he does it,” explains del Toro. “I wrote the part with Luke Goss in mind, and he delivered all the way.”
Goss, who portrayed the vampire Nomak for del Toro in Blade II, sympathized with the Prince and trained hard to make him a worthy adversary. “He aims to balance the scales by the most succinct means possible,” says Goss. “I can see his point. He wants to enjoy and not destroy the planet. When he walks into Blackwood’s auction house, he sees people sitting there with no idea about what they’re trying to buy. They’re selling his history, and it outrages him.”
The prince hasn’t surfaced with the intention of taking on Hellboy, but no matter. He’s ready to engage him physically and psychologically. Nuada also knows how to reach the secret places in Hellboy’s soul. At a crucial moment, he calls him out and forces him to face who is he is and where his loyalties lie. “Guillermo has upped the ante of what Hellboy’s going through in this movie,” says Perlman. “Eventually, Hellboy has to ask himself why he’s working for a bureau dedicated to neutralizing creatures who are really his own kind.”
British actress Anna Walton was cast as Princess Nuala. Walton was drawn to the part by the chance to play a character divided by her own conscience. She offers, “Everyone has a sort of evil person in one ear and a little angel in the other ear. Nuala’s brother is the heart and the passion of her. She admires it in one respect, but knows that she has to quash it, because it can’t be. It’s very hard for her, but, ultimately, she won’t let him win.”
Commends producer Levin of the team’s Nuala: “Anna does a phenomenal job, because Nuala’s this very ethereal character and, in the wrong hands, could just float away. But she does a great job grounding Nuala and making it seem possible that she would have a romantic relationship with a fish…I mean Abe Sapien.”
Performer John Hurt was brought back for a key flashback sequence as Hellboy’s father, Professor Trevor Broom, while Roy Dotrice was tasked to portray the wizened ruler of Bethmoora, King Balor. Brian Steele joined the cast to serve in four roles: as Prince Nuada’s troll henchman, Wink, as well as the aptly named Cathedral Head (a scroll vendor who provides Princess Nuala with an invaluable gift from her father), bag-lady troll Fragglewump and Cronie Troll. A host of movement actors joined in to play creatures, from limb, tadpole and fish vendors to organ grinders and butcher guards. Of note, the butchers were originally intended as background creatures, but evolved into necessary guards for King Balor.
Beneath the Surface: Designing Hellboy II: The Golden Army
This series of missions leads the B.P.R.D. team into secret new worlds that have been speculated upon for years but never before verified. Each of these lands was imagined in precise detail by del Toro and sketched in his ever-present notebook long before production began. Production designer Stephen Scott was tasked to bring these drawings to life.
Del Toro envisioned this chapter of Hellboy’s adventures taking place not only in multiple locations, but also in new realms. He offers, “In the first film, we were always in the sewers and subways, never out in the open, among high society or humans. This takes us a bit more there and into the magical world.” To do this, he would need to head to Hungary as well as to Ireland.
Undoubtedly, the most extravagant of these environments is del Toro’s aptly named Troll Market. Located underneath the Brooklyn Bridge and reached via the back of a butcher shop, it’s one of the few places where freaks don’t feel like outcasts. Hellboy, Liz, Abe and Johann find the Troll Market by following a tip wrung from the lips of a reanimated tooth fairy, a wretched little beast with an insatiable appetite for calcium.
Magical beings are the only ones who can access the market, a haven crowded with potion vendors and artifact mongers that’s been hidden from human eyes for millennia. “The Troll Market is like a souk you’d find in Morocco, except there are no humans,” explains Ron Perlman. “It’s Guillermo del Toro visiting the most extreme depths of his imagination.”
Entered via a 12′-high circular doorway comprised of rotating gears-an intricate locking structure that few can interpret-the Troll Market is packed to the rafters with everything an underworlder might need: discarded items from the city above, off-market novelties such as human skin, a barber shop, an opium den, a giant meat grinder and a community message board. It’s also, naturally, packed with trolls. More than 200 extras were recruited to inhabit the nooks and crannies of this hazy netherworld. Fortunately for Hellboy, Johann, in gaseous form, can unlock the door.
The writer / director wanted to create a place upon which audiences felt they had just stumbled-a universe with little explanation as to why there was any particular character; rather, the creatures just lived and worked there. Explains concept artist Francisco Ruiz Velasco, “Every artist working on the production was throwing crazy and exotic ideas around to come up with the different creatures that were to populate the Troll Market, `where you can find anything in the world, even those things that are not for sale.’” They did just that to flesh out del Toro and Mignola’s imaginings.
To interpret this world for film, production designer Scott had three months to transform a 4,000-square-meter cave, most recently used for growing mushrooms, into del Toro’s vision of the teeming marketplace. The cave also had to accommodate lights, acting, stunts and effects-such as dripping water and billowing steam-along with hundreds of cast, crew, goblins and trolls. The underground location, a former limestone quarry, was found 25 miles southwest of Budapest in the village of Tarnok, Hungary.
In addition to slick new B.P.R.D. uniforms, costume designer Sammy Sheldon was tasked to make sure no one could ever confuse trolls with humans in the enormous space. “We gave them strange humps on the front, humps on the back, big bellies, big bottoms, gloves with three fingers, tall shoes…anything we could think of to try and change the shape of a human being,” she says. “Every single character in the Troll Market has his face covered.”
Both the Troll Market and the eerily imposing Golden Army Chamber were designed in sharp contrast with the aboveground world of humans. “The human world is linear, with straight lines and sharp edges,” says Scott, “while the shapes of the belowground worlds are curved and fluid, with a mixture of Indian, Moroccan and other North African influences.”
The Golden Army Chamber houses a weapon of mass destruction that was commissioned by Elvish King Balor many centuries ago. According to del Toro: “The king said, `I want an army that doesn’t need to eat, sleep, drink or pause.’ So, the goblins created a massive army composed of 16′ tall mechanical soldiers that are killing machines. But they don’t know the difference between a man, woman or child-an innocent victim or a soldier.” Once the ruler realizes the horror of his manifested request, he understands that strength is restraint, not brutality, and locks the Golden Army away for eternity, hopefully to never to harm again. Until his son releases its nihilistic power once again.
The robotic holding pen was built in Budapest in a cavernous (and only partially completed) college sports arena, nicknamed Spikey Stadium by the crew due to the Sputnik-like protrusions on its roof. Because the space had sat unused for so long, it had a hollow, lifeless quality that was creepily appropriate for this massive set. In addition, its towering height offered practical advantages for construction and filming pivotal sequences of the army’s reactivation.
While Navarro’s cameras rolled at these and other locations in greater Budapest, the production’s construction crew worked nonstop at Korda Studios’ back lot, building the New York street to the production designer’s specifications. When principal photography began on June 9, 2007, Manhattan was nothing but a stark metal scaffold, which dozens of men scaled daily to build. As the months passed, it grew to encompass three blocks of shabby shops, a meat packing plant, loading docks, an auto shop, a bank, billboards, an SRO hotel and a trendy meat packing district café.
The New York street hosted several pivotal scenes, including the confrontation between Hellboy and the Elemental, a powerful “Jack and the Beanstalk”-type of vine creature with enough life force to rip through pavement. To fight the latest trick from Nuada’s playbook, Hellboy must scramble up a wobbly neon hotel sign to escape its grasping tentacles and bone-crushing moves. Hungarian speed-climbing champion CSABA KOMONDI was brought in for the job, doubling as Hellboy for the stunt. Donning boots, leather pants, heavy coat, oversized shotgun, animatronic tail, harness, pads and the right hand of doom-not to mention the infant he was rescuing-the 160-pound man weighed 240 pounds as he scaled the five letters of the sign…in one continuous take.
The nighttime sequence was filmed in November as snow flurries and high winds swept through the set. Although cast and crew shivered in the cold, everyone was confident that the hotel would withstand the conditions. “We used metal tube work behind the façade to prevent it from blowing away,” explains Scott.
The B.P.R.D. team also visits Giant’s Causeway, an ancient place of myth and legend, touted as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Although aerial photography was taken at the actual site on the Northern Irish coast, the actors performed their Causeway scenes in a hilly field near the town of Soskut in the Hungarian countryside. If they could offer just the right token to the Bethmoora Goblin who keeps watch, Hellboy, Liz and Abe would be admitted passage to the Angel of Death…a complicated proposition.
The freaks live where they work, at B.P.R.D. headquarters. The B.P.R.D. sets for Hellboy II: The Golden Army were also built in and around Budapest. The Bureau’s well-stocked “freak corridor,” medical bay and meeting rooms were constructed on soundstages at Korda Studios, as was Hellboy’s personal lair-complete with dozens of television sets and equally as many cats.
Professor Broom’s sumptuous library, the site of a pivotal confrontation between Hellboy and Nuada, occupied another stage at the brand-new Korda facility. Also, the small hut at the military base where Professor Broom raised young Hellboy was built at the studio. Here, as a child, Hellboy first heard tell of the Golden Army’s bloody history between mankind and the outlanders.
Finally, Bethmoora, the pivotal setting where Prince Nuada confronts his father about his shortcomings as a ruthless leader, was imagined. The city where King Balor reigns over a peaceful kingdom with favored child, Princess Nuala, was built inside an enormous cavern, and the buildings are carved into the stone walls. The ruinous space has been in shambles for several millennia, and ashes blanket the region.
Inside the Angel’s lair is a carving on the floor that depicts a diagram of the universe. The watchful filmgoer will catch Mike Mignola’s many icons and zodiac symbols (carved after many detailed sketches were considered by del Toro). Most important is a glyph that depicts Hellboy at the end of the days, alternately the savior of or harbinger to mankind’s destruction…depending upon how you read the runes.
The filmmakers took pride in honoring the designs of the many artists who contributed to the production. “It was inspiring to see the intricate sketches come to life over the shoot,” commends producer Levin. “These fantasy worlds and creatures had been so carefully imagined by Guillermo and the many artists who worked on Hellboy II. To find the detailed sketches built into intricate sets was especially exciting.”
Tooth Fairies and Limb Vendors: Creatures of Hellboy’s World
“I have always loved movies where the star is the monster. That has branded my view of art and storytelling all my life,” says del Toro. The director demonstrates this devotion to monsters of all shapes and sizes in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. “In the first movie, we did big, big creatures,” he says. “One thing I wanted to explore this time was what would happen if the first attack came from tiny creatures that are actually cute.”
Hence, the tooth fairies were born. Dainty and almost Tinkerbell-like, the fairies have little else in common with their spritely namesake; they have an insatiable appetite for calcium and are happiest when eating through human flesh to get to it. “Guillermo outdid himself on the cuteness scale with the tooth fairies, but they’re nasty little things,” says Selma Blair.
Solution Studios created an animatronic tooth fairy for a scene in the B.P.R.D.’s medical bay in which Johann reanimates the fairy, but the full-scale infestation of the burrowing predators in the auction house fell to Mike Wassel’s visual effects team. He would seamlessly create the swarm that attacked the B.P.R.D. after the carnivores had already eaten through a number of auction guests earlier in the evening. Wassel’s crew would need to make it appear as if Hellboy, Liz and Abe were frantically gunning and flaming through the nest of fairies.
Wassel’s group also created the plantlike Elemental creature, which stands more than 70′ tall after water activates its properties. Interestingly, the Elemental “seed” comes from Nuada’s grenade; the weapon shoots out magical Elemental spores that, after touching water, sprout into a forest and will choke anything in their way to achieve the goal of reforestation. Originally used by elves to grow an ecosystem, it’s been eons since one has been activated.
Solution also designed the juggernaut Golden Army soldiers, which play on-screen as 16′-tall mechanical robots that morph from an egglike state to full militia. This Golden Army has been dormant since Balor put them to rest, but it has been silently waiting for a new wearer of the crown to command them. Del Toro asked his artists for an enormous chamber that could house the hundreds of golden eggs. The stunning designs were brought to life at Solution.
Prosthetic creatures abound in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. With more than two dozen of them on set over the course of the shoot, the Hellboy II creature department was one of the production’s largest. Spectral Motion from Los Angeles took charge of 15 characters. Solution Studios, Creature Effects and Euroart Studios from the U.K., DDT from Spain and Filmefex from Hungary also made contributions to the horde of trolls, goblins and creatures of the night.
“This is the most massively scaled film I’ve ever worked on,” says Mike Elizalde, founder of Spectral Motion. “It’s been challenging, but also rewarding because of the cleverness and relevance to the story that each character has.”
Spectral Motion’s many achievements include Wink, the Prince’s lumbering sidekick and a match for Hellboy in brute strength. He is portrayed by actor Brian Steele, who is 6’7” tall as Steele, but 7’5” as the drooling beast. The Wink suit, an animatronic masterpiece, weighs 130 pounds. Coupled with Steele’s body mass, the suit was stunning that he could maneuver, much less walk, as long as he was able in the suit. Wink’s facial expressions and the movements of his weaponlike hand (with built-in mace) were controlled via radio by puppeteers.
“The finish, the quality, the mechanics, the articulation, the personality that these prosthetic characters have been given is incredible. The first time we all saw Wink, we couldn’t believe it. The whole set just stopped and assembled around him; it was spellbinding,” lauds executive producer Chris Symes.
Stunt coordinator BRAD ALLAN sums the cast and crew’s respect for Brian Steele’s work: “The effort Brian goes through just to make this character walk is amazing, let alone fight.”
Elizalde’s painstakingly detailed daily routine included the application of Hellboy’s prosthetic makeup. Perlman’s entire face was covered, along with much of his neck, arms and torso, in a process that typically required about three hours. “To wear rubber glued to your body and face and then get in front of the camera and, on cue, give the emotion you’re supposed to give is tough,” says Elizalde. “Ron is a great actor, and his emotion reads through the makeup.
Del Toro agrees. “Sometimes I have to push, or pull back, a performer in prosthetics until he/she finds the right wavelength,” he explains. “But with Ron, there’s no need. The man is a master in makeup.”
As noted, it took makeup artists THOM FLOUTZ and SIMON WEBBER five hours every day to transform Doug Jones into Abe Sapien. The process for his new characters, the massive Angel of Death and the simpering Chamberlain, was also labor-intensive.
Remarks Perlman: “The Angel of Death was, to me, the most impressive of the new makeups and conceits that has been created for the film. She’s got eight wings and stands 9-feet tall on an 80-pound frame.”
“I always play characters under gobs of makeup and obstacles,” Jones muses. “Sometimes they’re heavy; sometimes they’re hot; sometimes they’re glued on…or there’s a mask with mechanics, which keeps me from hearing the other characters’ dialogue, or there’s a vision problem and I can’t see where I’m supposed to put my prop. But my job is to look as if I wake up this way every day, and the design work is so beautiful that it becomes something really fun for me to give motion to.”
For the character of Johann, Dodd explains the need for multiple performers: “I’ve got two animators that are on very big radio-controlled units. One animates my mouth, which is basically two little things that pop up and down in time to whatever I’m saying. And the other one controls how much smoke you can see in my glass bubble, as well as-at various key moments-these two eye-like things on the front of my mask that are a form of breathing apparatus. Every time Johann wants to sigh, or there’s a climactic moment, smoke will shoot out of that point.”
For the many other creatures-from the Tadpole Vendor to Cathedral Head to a bevy of trolls-del Toro commissioned a number of artists to work on their creation, and left it to one of the shops to bring them to life. He is well known to bounce ideas from one artist to another; the results are an amalgam of designs that look as if they have existed since the dawn of time.
Start the Cogs! Battling a Robotic Army
The showdown in the Golden Army Chamber just past the Angel of Death’s lair provides the dramatic climax of Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The lavishly choreographed spectacle involved every department of the production.
The stunts team worked closely with the visual effects department in planning Hellboy’s battle with the computer-generated Golden Army soldiers. But the one-on-one fight between Hellboy and the prince is a flesh-and-blood encounter that required close collaboration between stunts and special effects, not to mention close calls between Ron Perlman and Luke Goss.
The dramatic design of the Golden Army Chamber heightened the fight’s ferocity. The huge golden cogs that flank the stage where the prince imperiously surveys the army become the fighting arena of the two combatants. The cogs’ movement is also the trigger that brings the Golden Army to life.
The action began with a shout of “Start the cogs!” from first assistant director CLIFF LANNING. “Every film has a slightly different range of effects and, in this movie, it’s the cogs that make the difference,” says assistant SFX supervisor MANEX EFREM, who oversaw their construction and operation. “Because of the cogs, this looks like no other fight you’ll ever see. The cogs spin, some move vertically, some are beveled gears. It’s very much like a fighting ballet.”
The cogs inspired stunt coordinator Brad Allan. “We saw an opportunity for some comedy and some excitement. We’re channeling a little bit of Charlie Chaplin from Modern Times and a little Jackie Chan, plus our own Hellboy flavor.”
The two combatants have completely different fighting styles, suggests Allan. “Hellboy is a strength guy, a stone-fisted brawler. The prince is all speed and stealth, lean and like lightning.”
Although the physically fit Luke Goss performed much of the sword and spear work, Allan upped the ante by mixing in top Chinese martial artists. As is Allan, they’re veterans of the Jackie Chan stunt team. Because the prince’s fighting technique is based on evasion, del Toro and Allan also decided to add somersaulting to his moves.
“I had no idea how I was going to find a power tumbler with the stature and physique of Luke Goss, because most of them are stocky little guys,” says Allan.
“But by typing `tumbler’ on YouTube, I found DAMIEN WALTERS-a tall, skinny, blond, blue-eyed guy who is the No. 3 power tumbler in the world today. He’s not a professional stunt performer, but his skill was exactly what we needed, and his work was so outstanding that the entire crew broke into applause after most of his takes.”
Wielding the ancient spear of Bethmoora, Prince Nuada knows almost no equal. In fact, he almost destroys Hellboy in a previous battle before their rematch in the Chamber. Concept artist Velasco explains of an early version of the drawing, created by Pablo Angeles: “The main idea was for the spear to be a kind of telescopic device, so when it is short it can be used as a double-bladed sword and then extend to spear,” he shares. “All the weapons of the elf royalty are richly decorated. We were trying to stay away from just Celtic motifs and create our own patterns. In the end, we moved the design toward more Oriental and Islamic ornamentation.”
Dos Guillermos: Compadres Shooting
Guillermo del Toro and his director of photography, Guillermo Navarro, are on their fifth collaboration with Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The most recent, Pan’s Labyrinth, brought Navarro the Academy Award for best cinematography in 2007. The pair also made the first Hellboy together. Indeed, the longtime friends planned their camera moves before production began.
“Guillermo Navarro is GDT’s right-hand creative partner,” observes Doug Jones. “Almost every shot in Hellboy II has a camera movement, and being an actor who relies on movement as much as I do, I love seeing the camera move as well.”
Del Toro describes his process with Navarro: “We always work before the movie. It started with Cronos and is the same way now. We watch movies together and discuss possible looks, and when the movie’s look is not something similar to any film ever made, we discuss paintings or comic books. If there is no reference, we discuss style sheets and put down some guidelines and talk about what type of film stock to use, what grain we want, what type of light, and then we do tests. We test the wardrobe and makeup and hairstyles and test all the lights we are going to use, and then we seldom talk about these again in the shoot.
It was important to the two filmmakers to shoot a movie unlike anything people had seen before. By taking the magical realm, elf world and new slants to Celtic mythology, they wanted to deliver a universe that was much more exotic and Oriental than audiences would expect. Shots would often get tricky, especially when Jones had two characters in one scene (i.e., a stunt double dressed as Abe Sapien was required to stand outside of the Angel of Death’s chamber, where Jones was in full makeup [and 40-pound wings] as the Angel herself).
“Guillermo is a friend, and I trust him as an artist and a partner,” offers del Toro. “He has taught me much, and we are compadres. He takes risks with me, and we are not afraid to go out on a limb.”
****
Shooting wrapped, layers of prosthetics peeled away and his famous sketchbook even more well worn, writer / director del Toro reflects on the draw of the hero with whom he has spent much of the last decade trying to explain: “Hellboy is an unlikely good guy with a blue-collar attitude and a big heart for his family of freaks. I identify with him 100 percent. He has an extraordinary job, but a workman-like mentality. He struggles with inner demons and fights against what others see as his destiny. His is a story of nature vs. nurture, which offers simple but beautiful truths about what it is to be human.”
And that is the type of story del Toro best shares. “I would love for people to find within Hellboy movies their favorite monsters,” he concludes. “We all need monsters to dream, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Luke Goss, Thomas Kretschmann, Doug Jones, Brian Steele, Roy Dotrice, John Hurt, Anna Walton, Jeffrey Tambor, Iván Kamarás, Seth MacFarlane
Screenplay by: Guillermo del Toro
Production Design by: Stephen Scott
Cinematography by: Guillermo Navarro
Film Editing by: Bernat Vilaplana
Costume Design by: Sammy Sheldon
Set Decoration by: Elli Griff, Zsuzsa Mihalek
Art Direction by: Anthony Caron-Delio, Peter Francis, John Frankish, Paul Laugier, Csaba Stork, Mark Swain, Judit Varga
Music by: Danny Elfman
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language.
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: July 11, 2008
Visits: 53
