The Crooked Man Director Tackled the Reboot Like He Was Adapting a Stephen King Novel

Third time's the charm for the upcoming Hellboy remake, Hellboy: The Twisted ManDespite the modifications made by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy and Hellboy 2: The Golden Army) The comics became fan favorites, and attempts to adapt Mike Mignola's beloved comics for the big screen failed to fully satisfy fans. As a result, the director decided to Brian Taylor It takes a fresh approach to bringing the popular comic book character to life. While many comic book adaptations treat the source material as a rough guide, Taylor to tackle Mignola's 'Crooked Man' film series Hellboy Comics are given the same respect as one would when adapting a novel..

Brian Taylor recently sat down with GamesRadar+ about Hellboy: The Twisted ManThe director was asked about his approach to the franchise, and how he intended to differentiate his film from previous adaptations. In addition to del Toro’s films, David Harbour also played the red-skinned devil in the critically panned 2019 remake. Taylor said it was partly down to how he handled the source material. Referring to how Hollywood has approached film adaptations of beloved novels, The director says he brought the same reverence and respect to Mignola's comics as he did adapting Stephen King's novel. He explained:

“I approached it as, ‘This is an adaptation. I’m adapting the story the way I would adapt a Stephen King story, everything is in the scripts. I’m going to do this with all the love and care that I can.’ I think fans of the original comic book are going to love this. I know there are people online who have seen the teasers and stuff like that and said, ‘This is a comic.’ This is what we want.”

Hellboy: The Crooked Man is a “folklore story.”

After being summoned to Earth by a satanic Nazi cult (Mike Mignola’s comics are wild!), Hellboy is taken on by the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. This concept leaves endless possibilities for where Hellboy’s story might go. Guillermo del Toro’s films, and the 2019 remake, pitted Hellboy and the Bureau against threats on a country and world scale. In his 2024 adaptation, Brian Taylor keeps his story realistic.

During the conversation, Taylor explained that his film would have no connection to previous adaptations and would be a standalone story. He expressed his issues with recent franchise films, their increasingly long runtimes, and unnecessarily complex plots that require too much explanation. Taylor said that his film Hellboy “Reboot” is a “beautiful folk film.”

“I knew we weren’t going to use other movies at all, they’re standalone movies. They’re great, but this isn’t a space movie, right? It’s a folk story, it’s an embedded story. It’s an attempt to simplify things a little bit, I think. I feel like movies have gotten really complicated. And we’re talking about this, I mean, movies these days, it’s two or three hours, and an hour of people explaining things, and I still don’t get it. It makes me tired. I think a beautiful folk horror story is a simple thing, and that’s the way we approached it.”

First full trailer for Hellboy: The Twisted Man The film introduced the cigar-smoking, devilish character of Jack Kesey. In addition to giving audiences a better look at Kesey’s iconic character, the trailer also showcases the film’s very dark tone. Brian Taylor explained that unlike previous adaptations that took a more action-oriented approach, Hellboy: The Twisted Man “A horror story, a horror movie – it's very simple.”