Movies
Ron Perlman Says ‘Hellboy 3 Probably Won’t Happen, And He’s Probably Right
During a recent press conference for Festival International du Film Fantastique de Gérardmer 2012, Ron Perlman let drop that Hellboy 3 probably isn’t ever going to happen. Which kind of makes sense.
The Hellboy films are great, but they’re not enormous moneymakers (nor are they flops, they’re just not sure things). And Guillermo Del Toro’s dance card is extremely full of projects after he finishes Pacific Rim. The odds for the money and a willing studio being in place during the brief window of time Del Toro may have to make the film (whenever that may be) are kind of low.
Or, in the words of Perlman, “If I had to bet, I would bet there will be no Hellboy 3… It would be a great shame if we never did it… It’s kind of like Dorothy in ‘The Wizard Of Oz’, we close our eyes and click our heels [in the hopes it will come together].”
Hit the jump for video from the press conference, where he also discusses his willingness to be on “Game Of Thrones” – not that he necessarily will be.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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