MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 2007
PHOENIX CACTUS COMICON: MIKE MIGNOLA PANEL
MESA, Ariz. -- It's a little game Mike Mignola likes to play at convention panels.
How soon before a Hellboy movie question is asked?
At his Phoenix Cactus Comicon panel on Saturday, he didn't have to wait at all. With production on Hellboy 2: The Golden Army slated to start soon, the sequel is on a lot of Hellboy fans' minds and it was the subject of the first question -- and several thereafter.
"Hellboy 2," Mignola said, with a slight pause for effect after the frst question. "We've been in preproduction for two months in L.A.. In the next month or so, we're moving to Europe to continue preproduction and we begin shooting in May/June in Budapest. So it will be coming, unless something goes terribly wrong, in summer 2008."
Director Guillermo del Toro, earning raves for his latest film, Pan's Labyrinth, returns, as do cast members Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Selma Blair (Liz Sherman) and Doug Jones (Abe Sapien).
Mignola said his involvement in the sequel with be similar to the first film.
"Guillermo and I wrote an original story together for the second one, so it's not based any of the comics," Mignola said. "But I co-wrote the story with Guillermo and he wrote the screenplay.
"Judging from Pan's Labyrinth, he's twice as good of a filmmaker now as he was when he did Hellboy. I think thatıs pretty good news for us."
The Hellboy franchise moved from Sony-based Revolution Studios to Universal. Mignola estimates the sequel's budget at $85 million -- as opposed to $60 million for the first film -- but said meeting the budget will still be a substantial challenge, especially with del Toro's grandiose vision.
"It's going to be a $150 million movie, but we're going to have to make for $85 million," Mignola said. "That's why weıre going to Budapest to make it."
Mignola said meetings in the last few weeks have concentrated on scarling Hellboy 2 down.
"There's a lot of things you can cut, surface things and details," Mignola said. "Producers will say, 'This isn't important to the story. You don't need it.' Yeah, thatıs true, but if you don't have it there, you just go, 'Oh, that was nice.' But if you put those del Toro details in there, suddenly you've got a Pan's Labyrinth and something that people will be talking about for 20 years, as opposed to a movie that will do OK at the box office the first weekend and will be quickly forgotten.
"Most people in Hollywood are thinking, 'We need to get this movie made. We need a good opening weekend.' And del Toro is trying to make an art film.
"We need these details. We need to give this guy the room to do what he does. I don't want to see a generic monster movie, especially from a guy as talented as he is. Especially after I saw Pan's Labyrinth."
Talk of a Hellboy trilogy has already started, but Mignola, who already knows how we wants to finish the character's story, said the film and comics franchises will end differently.
"Guillermo does view Hellboy as three films, but he has no idea what my ending is. And Iıll never tell him my ending," Mignola said. "If I tell him my ending, what if he wants to use it for the third film? The third film will then come 10 years before my ending. I donıt want him to give away my ending.
"Already in the second film, he's started to do some stuff with Hellboy that I never intended. Not that Iım against it. It's a parallel universe version of Hellboy. Hellboy has a relationship with Liz Sherman. She doesn't in the comics and she never would in the comics.
"With the second film, we start veering off more and more into the del Toro Hellboy. And it will be fine to work with him on that and hopefully he'll ask me on that third film, but if that's the end of Hellboy, it will be a purely del Toro end of Hellboy."
In other notes from the panel:
* Mignola said he would like to work with Eric Powell again on another Hellboy/The Goon project. "It would work exactly the same way," he said.
* Mignola was asked if the character is getting too big for him to control.
*"It's at this point where you have to decide," he replied. "Does Hellboy stay this big and is this precious little personal project that comes out four issues every other year? Or do you put out this whole Hellboy world? The situation Iıve been put in the last year or so, I've been extremely excited about all these other elements to Hellboy's world."
* The previously mentioned end to Hellboy in comics won't be for a while yet but Mignola isn't sure when exactly the final story will be.
"The race is, can I do that whole story while I still have enough marbles in my head to keep the story straight?" he said. "Iım starting to think, maybe I should write the ending down, just in case I get hit by a bus and can't finish it."
* Mignola on artists who have copied his style. "It's flattering, just as long as they don't do it better," he said.
Mignola said that Joe Golem, a character he created in case the movie totally wrecked Hellboy, still is a part of his future. "I have lots of ideas with layers of dust," he said. "But this one, the dust keeps coming off."
* Asked if he was interest in more filmmaking, Mignola said, "Guillermo and I have a very close relationship, but I never go the reputation as a film guy. The Hollywood stuff is fun, and I won't kid you, it pays really well. But it's hard for me to come up with a better job -- and that's making my own stuff."
Mignola said he's always open to work with del Toro.
"If del Toro called tomorrow saying he's doing a movie about kittens, I don't know what the hell I would do, but I would be there," Mignola said. "He's a joy to work with."
* Mignola said he didn't know what the plans were regarding toys for the Hellboy sequel.
* Although he contributed an interview for the upcoming DVD, Mignola said he still hasn't seen The Amazing Screw-On Head animated pilot. He said because the producers decided to make the animation resemble his style, he couldn't watch it because he would be too critical. "I would see all the problems," he said.
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