Guillermo del Toro: Interview

Interview by Clint Morris

Interview with Director Guillermo del Toro
Directing the movie Hellboy.

Everyone knows who Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man are, but unless you’re an ardent comic book fan, you’ve probably never heard of Hellboy. The titular chap is an imp, rescued from the Nazis, who is bought up under the unswerving supervision of the government and raised as a protector of the city.

Since its inception, the comic series has won a legion of fans – including one illustrious film director. Clint Morris has a chin wag with one of Hollywood's action men.

Quite a few years back – close to a decade, actually - filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (The Devils Backbone, Blade 2, Cronos) proposed a film version of the comic, the upshot of a time-honoured love for the comic.

"I was very familiar with the comic books already. I’d known the work of [artist] Mike [Mignola] for nearly a decade before getting involved in Hellboy. Mike seldom did his own stories and wasn’t known for his own stories, but with Hellboy I thought he came on his own.

"The interest in doing a film version streams from my long standing admiration for the work of Mignola," says the Mexican native, on the line from America.

"I also liked the idea of doing a movie that wasn’t necessarily about a perfect superhero. I didn’t want to do a movie about some lean, smiling, good-looking superhero. I wanted a guy we could identify with and Hellboy is a guy that I have a lot of love for."

Much like the character itself, the guy under all that make-up is far from a genre A-lister. "From the very start I went into the producer’s office and one of the first things I said was ‘I want Ron Perlman to be Hellboy’. And the fact that I got the job was testament to a momentary lapse of reason by (Producer) Larry Gordon I guess," says del Toro.

And though they signed off on that eventually, the studio never did agree with Del Toro’s decision to use Perlman, who had previously worked with the director on such films as Cronos and Blade 2. "For six and a half years I tried to convince them. Everyone in the Hollywood studio system kept saying ‘anyone but him’, because they wanted a star that would be a sure-fire thing. I just wanted the right actor and the right actor was Ron Perlman."

Also in the cast is the gorgeous Selma Blair, veteran actor John Hurt, Jeffrey Tambor, Karl Roden and Frasier favourite, David Hyde-Pierce, who provides the voice of Abe-Sapien. "I always imagined two possible voices for the character of Abe Sapien, one was David Hyde-Pierce and the other was Steve Buscemi.

"I knew we would decide who when we got a look at how the character turns out. When I locked the look of the character away I thought David Hyde-Pierce was the way to go. He was very kind to do it. I enjoyed the hell out of his performance."

Del Toro is ecstatic with the finished result – but stresses if he had more bank he might’ve been able to jazz it up a little more. "If you ask me more favourite scene, I’d have to tell you the three parts of the movie that I enjoy the most.

"One is the opening with the 1940’s and the other is the rooftop sequence with the child and finally, the fight, the Hellboy fight at the end. But I think we were given a very tight budget, somewhere around the $66 million dollar mark, most of the other summer superhero movies are costing upwards of 200.

"If I had a bigger budget there, I would’ve added a couple of more monsters. I’m extremely happy though, this is one of my two favourite movies. I’ve made five. I love this one and Devils backbone the most."

Even though it hasn’t been quite as popular as some of the other superhero/comic movies released this year? "I don’t see Hellboy as a superhero movie, though it does come from comics. Hellboy has such an outlandish nature and persona. It’s completely in its own category.

"It’s a much darker movie, it’s a far more sarcastic movie, and it’s a highly melodramatic and emotional movie for me. There’s a sorrow for being seen as the some brother, because if you go to Hellboy expecting to see another Batman or another Spider-Man you might be disappointed."

Currently, del Toro says he’s mixing some deleted scenes back into the film and plans to re-issue it again. "I cut out things that I thought were slowing the pace of the movie, but I’ve put them back into what I call the ‘Directors Cut’, which will be released in France and possibly Japan, theatrically.

"It’s a more sedate thing, but it adds a more interesting direction for the characters. A little more weight for the bad guys too. Which I think is very good for the movie."

Also in his future is a film with short-film director Sandy Collora (Batman, Dead End), a sequel to Hellboy and a return to his roots. "I hope to help Sandy on his first feature. I was a big fan of Dead End and I think it showcases a real heartfelt sensibility of superheroes and if I can be of any help getting him into his first feature I’d love that.

"Then, I’m going back to doing a Spanish language movie. A horror movie. It’s a bookend for Devils backbone, which is one of my favourites. As for Hellboy 2, I start writing it in the Fall and then it’ll depend on how fast we get a script we’re all happy about and how fast we can work out a budget and a date. It’s in the future, but I wouldn’t put a date on it."

Del Toro says Hyde-Pierce and Blair, in addition to Perlman, will be among the returning cast. "In the next Hellboy adventure he’ll (Hyde-Pierce’s Abe Sapien) have a more prominent role. She’ll be back (Blair). Jeffrey Tambor will be back. We will have a good class of weirdos around."

Selma Blair has since been linked to the role of Lois Lane in Superman. "She would be just great for it," del Toro says. "She would be a blessing to the movie."

Del Toro says he’d also love a crack at returning to the Blade franchise – he helmed Blade 2 - sometime down the track. "I would love to go back and do a fourth ballistic Blade – vampires all over the world – but who the hell knows."

And has he seen anything of the forthcoming Blade: Trinity? "I’ve seen the whole movie and I enjoyed the hell out of it. The thing I love the most about it is that it's different, each of the Blade movies has been different to the others. [Director, David] Goyer has a very sardonic, very brutal sense of humour and it’s a different movie. I think it’s going to be quite a trip for the audience."

Hellboy commences August 5th.

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