Lionsgate is already getting fans hyped for the new film adaptation of Hellboy.
The production company launched a new Hellboy website — on Hellboy Day (Saturday, March 23), no less — featuring access to the Bureau for Paranormal Research & Defense’s (BPRD) archives.
When fans surf to bprd.global, they reach the landing page for Codswallop Fish and Chips, which is one of BPRD’s secret bases. The site automatically switches to the landing page for the BPRD, featuring text fields to apply for an internship.
Then, you’re totally let down as the website directs you to use your phone for “the full experience.” Once you do switch to your mobile device, you can read through files of the Hellboy characters, including redacted ones that get you even more excited to watch the film and uncover all of the top-secret information.
The reboot of the franchise starring David Harbour (Stranger Things) is set to be much different than what audiences saw in the Hellboy series directed by Guillermo del Toro, and will take a more mature perspective, according to the movie’s screenwriter and the comic’s creator Mike Mignola.
“In the del Toro films, Hellboy is kind of penned up, and kept secret, and that is not what we have here [in the upcoming film],” Mignola tells ComicBook. “This is truer to the comic, in that Hellboy’s been out in the world. He’s not a top-secret, hidden away guy. He’s an out-there-in-the-world, functioning, working adult. So you’ve got that working stiff, been there, done that vibe with Harbour, that you just couldn’t have with Ron because it was played so differently. [With Harbour’s Hellboy], there’s a little bit more angsty, find-your-place-in-the-world, frustration with his role.”
The adult, rated-R version of the character’s story directed by Neil Marshall will include gore and swearing.
Mignola, along with Andrew Cosby, Christopher Golden, and Aron Coleite, wrote the script.
Daniel Dae Kim, Mila Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Thomas Haden Church, Brian Gleeson, Sophie Okonedo, and Penelope Mitchell will also join the Hellboy universe.
The movie will premiere in theaters on April 12.
Photo: Lionsgate
