'Hellboy: The Crooked Man' director Brian Taylor and stars Jack Kesy, Jefferson White and Adeline Rudolph chat with THR at San Diego Comic-Con and discuss their new film, working with 'Hellboy' creator Mike Mignola and more.
03:41Yeah, I think that's a really, that contrast, I think, is going to be really apparent.
03:45And, yeah, I love the other Hellboy films.
03:48I really do.
03:48Like, Hellboy 2, The Golden Army, is, like, an incredible, spectacular film.
03:55It's, like, it's a beautiful, massive, the scale is huge.
03:59This is a very different movie.
04:02It's a very different story, but they do share some common DNA in, I think, a way that's really gratifying.
04:10And maybe just to add to that, like, it's, I think this movie is much more stripped back.
04:14It kind of leans more into the horror aspect of the comics, kind of how they were more intentioned in the comic books as well with Dark Force.
04:21And so, yeah, there's just this element of, I think, fans were excited about that, too.
04:26It's less action-packed, per se, not to say that there isn't any action.
04:30There's definitely some action.
04:32But it really focuses on this journey that Hellboy goes on, meeting these very weird and creepy and fantastical, like, creatures along the way.
04:41Well, I know another way this one's different from the other ones is you.
04:45Oh, yeah, I exist.
04:46Yeah.
04:48New character.
04:49Yes.
04:50So, I'm not, my character, Bobby Jo Song, isn't in the original comic book.
04:54But she's a BPRD agent that's a rookie, excited to go on this journey with Hellboy.
05:00And I'm really excited that I got to bring her to life.
05:03Yeah.
05:04Also, I want to add, I think it's specifically set in, I want to say, the 50s?
05:10Late 50s.
05:10Late 50s.
05:11And we definitely pulled some elements out of the 50s and tried to keep it in.
05:15So, essentially, it's kind of a period piece.
05:18Definitely.
05:18Definitely.
05:19And that was kind of fun.
05:20And we see Hellboy, essentially, he is a younger version of what Hellboy usually is.
05:26And I think we get to see a Hellboy who's kind of trying to be just a young man.
05:31But, unfortunately, he doesn't really resemble one.
05:33So, he has that kind of neurosis of, I just want to be a guy, but don't kind of look like a guy.
05:39I just want the girls and the music.
05:40But I've got a destiny to fulfill and save humankind, which sucks.
05:44But I've got to do it, you know.
05:46Anyway, I'm done.
05:48Brian, how did you bring the 50s to life on screen in this film?
05:52Well, it's interesting because this is like a folk horror.
05:54It's a cabin in the woods kind of movie, right?
05:56So, there's not 50s cars and 50s signage and things like that that you can lean on.
06:01And so, it was a bit of a challenge sort of evoking the 50s.
06:05And some of it is in dialogue.
06:07People talk a little bit different.
06:09We tried to get as much 50s vernacular and slang in as we could.
06:13It felt authentic.
06:13Music was the way we did it.
06:16Set design to some extent.
06:18But it really, you know, it's just sort of a buy-in, you know.
06:25One great thing about that is you don't kind of deal with cell phones, which just ruin every single movie.
06:30You know, so it was kind of nice.
06:32You know, the comic book was set in the late 50s.
06:33And there was some talk early on about, like, maybe this should be contemporary.
06:37And I pushed back very strongly about that.
06:38You know, it's like, no, this is The Crooked Man.
06:40This is Mike's comic.
06:41And it should be set the way the comic is set.
06:43There's a lot of reasons why it's that way.
06:45And we're going all in.
06:48The film has been called a return to Hellboy's indie horror roots.
06:51What's your take on that description?
06:54Yeah, well, that's sort of like, I'm a big, I'm a comic book guy.
06:57And I actually think, no exaggeration, I mean, I feel Mike Mignola is a genius.
07:03I mean, how many people have created an entire comic book universe that is part of the Zeitgeist and its household name, but they're not part of Marvel.
07:13They're not part of DC.
07:14They're unaffiliated.
07:15He's a total indie.
07:16It all came from the brain of one guy.
07:18That's really, really special.
07:19So I have a ton of respect for him as a creator.
07:23And the whole thing going in was like, again, we want to honor him.
07:28And what he was doing with those books, it was a different feeling.
07:33It wasn't a big spectacular, right?
07:35It was sort of like a, almost like a procedural.
07:38It was like a folk horror night stalker kind of thing.
07:41Hellboy is this, you know, sort of wandering soul, you know, who stumbles onto these hauntings and dark forces.
07:47And he's a plumber, he's going to do something about it if you need him.
07:50And that, to me, is like the sort of essential Hellboy.
07:53And I think this is the first time we've really seen that version of Hellboy on screen.
08:00I know Mike was really excited about it.
08:02There's been some talk online about the runtime of the film.
08:05Can you share what the runtime is and what went into that decision?
08:10Like, what kind of talk?
08:13Some talk that it's like less than two hours.
08:15Some people were saying that maybe it's kind of short.
08:18Oh, yeah, I mean, we, yeah, I don't know how to respond to that.
08:23We used what we shot, you know?
08:27You know, I got to say, personally, like, I'm not a fan of two-and-a-half-hour movies.
08:31I like movies to be short.
08:32You know, every movie I've ever made, it's like, I'm very happy to get in and out of there in, like, you know, 90 minutes if I can.
08:39I've made movies that are 87 minutes long.
08:41It's more than enough time to take out of someone's life in the theater.
08:43You know, I don't need it to be an epic.
08:45You know, like Deer Hunter?
08:47See, but Deer Hunter would have, at 87 minutes, just imagine how much Deer Hunter would have cooked.
08:51You know what I mean?
08:51So, yeah, it's, I don't, I, this is not a sprawling epic.
08:57You know, this is not, this is not a space opera.
09:00This is a small story about, you know, sort of normal people that are in over their heads with trouble that they didn't deserve, and Hellboy's going to help them get out of it.
09:10And I, I, I think the movie is the correct link to tell the story we were trying to tell.
09:15There are too many three-hour movies now, to be honest.
09:18It's like, we don't want to sit in the theater for three, three and a half hours.
09:21Yeah, I need two bathroom breaks in a movie like that.
09:26You've got to scroll.
09:27That's true.
09:28I mean, I'm like smuggling a sandwich into the theater.
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