"Hellboy is a truly interesting melding of Mike Mignola and Guillermo del Toro. There's a lot of me in there and there are things that are different. But it's true to the spirit of my stuff."
- Mike Mignola

A decade ago, Mike Mignola, a talented and experienced comic book artist, decided to take a creative gamble and explore his own storytelling impulses. "I had always enjoyed reading folklore, legends, ghost stories as well as monster comics and occult-detective stories," Mignola explains. "So I thought, 'what if I do a monster as a good guy who fights other monsters?"' "Hellboy pretty much fulfilled my life-long ambition to do nothing but draw monsters. Ten years later, I still love drawing it." Unlike most comic book heroes, Mignola fashioned Hellboy as a "blue-collar; regular guy," he says. "In addition to being indestructible, he's also slightly innocent and shy. He just happens to have a job as a monster hunter."

The first 'mini-series' Mignola created was "Hellboy - Seed of Destruction," which he calls "Hellboy's coming of age, the moment he decides what kind of man he is going to be." The arc of the story begins with Hellboy's first appearance on earth and follows him through several adventures that ultimately lead to a confrontation with the villainous Rasputin who needs Hellboy to unleash the destructive forces of the underworld.

It was this first series that caught the attention and admiration of Mexican-born writer/director Guillermo del Toro, the creator of such memorable films as Blade II, The Devil's Backbone and Cronos (which won the Critic's prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and received nine Mexican Academy awards).

"What immediately attracted me to Hellboy was Mike's graphic presentation, which was striking and beautiful. He is also a great storyteller, weaving tales that are both mythic and quirky. The character of Hellboy is a unique creation - and a lot of fun - so strong and, at the same time, so human, so vulnerable." - Guillermo del Toro

Several years ago, del Toro learned there were plans for a movie based on Hellboy, and knew there was only one person to make it - himself. "I had become addicted to the comic. So when I first heard it was going to be turned into a movie, I fought very hard to get into the room and have a chance to say 'I am the guy to make this movie,"' he explains.

Just from his initial discussions with producers Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin, del Toro's passion for the material was abundantly clear. "Not only did we respect the talent he'd already shown as a filmmaker," says Gordon, "but we were bowled over by his understanding of the comic book and his enthusiasm. It's as if he'd been there, somewhere in the room with Mike every day since he first created it."

In the character of Hellboy, del Toro saw a unique superhero, "who is actually a lovable under-achiever," he says. "He was born with this enormous strength and immortality, yet all he wants to do in life is kick back with a six-pack of beer and watch football on TV with his girlfriend - like a regular guy."

Mignola and del Toro immediately connected when they were introduced. "It was clear to me from the start that Guillermo was the only guy who could make this movie," says Mignola. "He brings his own personality to it. He's one of a younger breed of directors who love comic books and take them very seriously. They understand them and see them as a legitimate film genre."

"Someone who's not familiar with the Hellboy comic books will really enjoy how humorous and human it is. As fun as the movie is, as extraordinary as the visual effects are, and as impressive as the action is, at the end of the day the story and the characters are just as entertaining. It's a real movie-movie."
- Producer Lloyd Levin.

"The Seed of Destruction" stories provided a launch pad for the film. The screenplay expanded upon the father-son relationship between Hellboy and his mentor Trevor "Broom" Buttenholm, the head of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D). A triangular love story was introduced involving Hellboy's pyro-kinetic cohort and friend Liz Sherman and a new character, John Myers, a young FBI agent who becomes Hellboy's rival for Liz's affection.

"It's a great yarn, a great action-adventure movie with a great character," says Gordon. "The character of Hellboy is, to me, like John McClain (Bruce Willis) in "Die Hard" or like Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Predator." He has the same deadpan sense of humor and is a major action figure. And, like "Die Hard" and "Predator," this film has a great villain in Grigori Rasputin."

The re-engineering of the story received Mignola's blessing. "There were things I alluded to over the past 10 years in bits and pieces that were condensed. I said 'Change what you want," recalls Mignola. "Make it your version of my thing."'

The result, Mignola continues, is an entertaining hybrid. "The movie exists in a parallel universe to the comic book. For instance, the aquatic superhero Abe Sapien is different from the comic book original. Guillermo gave him more personality and altered him visually. But he's certainly true to the spirit of what I did, whereas the (villainous) Sammael is completely a del Toro character. And in the climactic scenes where Hellboy and Kroenen duke it out, it's like a Mignola character fighting with a del Toro character."

"I've always wanted to make a monster movie and this one has outlandish characters and fantastic monsters and settings," says del Toro. "But in order to have the audience connect with it, I had to find a couple of emotional through-lines. One is a father-son story between Professor Broom, who rescued Hellboy and raised him as a son. Broom loves Hellboy, but also fears his nature. The other is Hellboy's crush on Liz Sherman, a variation on the beauty and the beast story - except in this case it's more like beast and the beast," explains del Toro.

"Ron Perlman is Hellboy." - Guillermo del Toro

Besides possessing a dual nature of good and evil, del Toro saw Hellboy as a man trapped in a boy's body. "Hellboy has the physical body of a half-century old red ape, but the heart and mind of a young teenager. He is very spoiled, he's very temperamental and he's very unruly."

From the very start, Mignola and del Toro were completely in accord that there was only one actor who could embody their hero. "We both immediately knew Ron Perlman should play him," says Mignola. "He's got Hellboy's demeanor. He's got that working stiff, been-there-done-that quality in almost everything he does. And he's got the perfect voice. Soon after we first met I said to Guillermo, 'So who do you think should play Hellboy?' And there was a little bit of sizing each other up -like who's going to say it first. And we both said Ron Perlman at the same time."

While he was writing the screenplay, del Toro contacted Perlman (with whom he also worked with on Cronos and later, Blade II) and told him he was writing a movie for him.

Perlman was flattered. "What I like about Hellboy is that he fights monsters but he's also a sensitive soul. He's bad, he's fun, he's fast." Embodying Hellboy's outer trappings of enormous strength and indestructibility, however, was far from effortless, requiring a year of intense preparation for Perlman. "Physically, I knew I was in for six months of fighting crime against monsters and demons - the big dudes that Hellboy has to take down. "The action sequences were going to require incredible outpourings of energy, so I felt like I needed to be in tiptop shape. I'm grateful I had almost a year between when I found out I was going to be doing this and the start of production. I was at the gym, five, six days a week and doing a lot of cardio and just getting as strong as I possibly could."

"John Hurt as Broom looks exactly like the character in the comic book. At times I thought I must have looked at a photo of Hurt when I drew this guy. It was spooky."
- Mike Mignola

The character of Professor Broom runs a secret organization, The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) "It was formed by President Roosevelt to combat the occult societies created during World War II," according to del Toro. "It's an alternate world to the one we know. As Broom says, 'Make no mistake about it, there are things out there that go bump in the night. We're the ones who bump back."'

It is Broom, an expert in the occult, who rescued Hellboy and decided to raise him as a son. "Broom anchors the story," says Levin, "and it was our tremendous good fortune to get John Hurt to play him. He gives the character a kind of gravitas. He makes Hellboy understand that, in life, even the oddest creature has a purpose." Hurt, who has starred in such classic films as Alien and The Elephant Man, came aboard for two reasons, he says. "Guillermo is a director I admire tremendously. Also, it's the kind of movie I'd never made before - a fantasy piece with touches of human emotion."

"The beauty of this story is that we use monsters to investigate other monsters who are menacing humanity. Abe Sapien has these incredible telepathic powers that allow him to read the past, the future, and divine the personality of a person through an object they've held. Liz Sherman is pyro-kinetic. She can create fire out of nothing. Every time she gets really, really angry you'd better get out of her way."
- Guillermo del Toro.

Hellboy has been raised with two other exceptional creatures, Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman, who each possess their own supernatural gifts. "Abe Sapien is a being who's almost superhuman, a fish-man who is also a very intelligent creature," says del Toro. "He combines the body of a swimmer with the forehead of a dolphin and the face of a fish. While Hellboy is more the brawn, Abe is more the brain."

When actor Doug Jones (Men in Black® Il, Mimic) was approached for the role of Abe Sapien, del Toro informed him, "Oh by the way, you're going to be a fish." Jones didn't bat an eye. "It was no surprise. I've played many creatures before," he says. "I've been a kangaroo twice. I've been an alien, a cockroach, a large mosquito. I've been anything with a tail, basically. I've never been a fish before, however. This is new to me. Full head-to-toe gig. But curiously, he's one of the easier creatures I've played because they used so much of me. Parts are glued on to me but it's not like I'm wearing a big suit with a giant head on going 'Arrgghh!' I love Abe. He's the smart guy."

As Liz Sherman, actress Selma Blair is normal looking - though in this case, looks are definitely deceiving. "Liz is a fire-starter who caused great tragedy in her life," says Blair. "When she used her power, it resulted in the death of her parents and many people in a nearby town. After that, she became a ward of the state and the B.P.R.D. took her in to harness her pyro-kinetic abilities."

Liz forms a fractured family with Hellboy, Abe and Broom. "Hellboy is her comfort," says Blair. "He's someone who's similar to her. Part of her hates that however, because unlike Hellboy, on the outside she looks like a regular girl. So, she's very conflicted. Like Hellboy, she's afraid of establishing real connections because she doesn't know how to be normal."

Adding to Liz's emotional turmoil is the arrival of a handsome, young FBI recruit John Myers (Rupert Evans), on whom she develops a crush. "When Myers comes into her life, for the first time, she sees herself having a chance to be a real woman" Blair continues. "John Myers is definitely a flirtation she wants to try out."

And that combustible situation is further fueled by Hellboy's jealousy. "Myers has been recruited to be Hellboy's companion," notes Perlman. "While he admires John, he poses a threat to his friendship with Liz."

"Sammael is the Hound of the Resurrection. Every time you kill him, two new Sammaels are born."
- Ron Perlman

"Rasputin has been perpetrating evil through the ages. Hellboy is key to his apocalyptic plans. He's the piece of the puzzle Rasputin needs in order to bring Hell to Earth."
- Guillermo del Toro

Karel Roden (Rasputin)

Believing that his villains need to be as compelling as his heroes, del Toro created Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden). "He's a very fervent, religious man in his own sort of way," del Toro points out. "He really believes there's a cause to be fought, that Earth should be destroyed because of its impurities and we should start again with a new species." Famed Czechoslovakian actor Karel Roden, who previously worked with del Toro on Blade II, was the ideal choice for Rasputin, according to the director. "Rasputin has died many times," observes Roden. "And each time he loses more of his humanity, but at the same time, gets more powerful and godlike - the god of chaos." Instead of portraying him as malevolent, however, Roden says his attitude toward the character was informed by the idea that "he thinks he wants to rescue the world. He may be doing bad things, but from his perspective, he is trying to achieve good."

From the official "Hellboy" Press Release.