Hey folks, Harry here... Guillermo called me up a few minutes ago, we didn't really talk about movies, he was checking up on friends in Austin, geek stuff about MATRIX and X2... just general movie talks, and to find out how Kublakhan is doing. He did mention that things are going very well on HELLBOY, though he's working himself to death, keeping very long hours with little sleep, but happy as a pig in shit. Guillermo told me that work is progressing very strongly on both WIND AND THE WILLOWS and AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. However, given that Guillermo wrote the following up on IMDB regarding his proposed remake of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, I'll be asking him about it when next we talk. Here ya go...
Hey...I haven't seen any posts about this, so I don't know if you know. But if you don't know you should, 'cause I know and that's not right that I would know something before you. 'Cause I'm from Omaha. And we're all worthless here. Anyway...I heard about this crap that John Landis was going to remake "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" about 5 years ago. He didn't, but that's cool. Anyway, looks like after "The Mummy"'s success and "Van Helsing" and all these classic monsters coming back, "Creature" is back. Supposedly supposed to be made next year. Guillermo del Toro is on board now. You may have known all of this. But over on IMDB.com, del Toro posted a summary of what he wants to make. Sounds cool, I have faith in him. If he messes up, I'm going after him, though. Here you go:
Plot Summary for
Creature from the Black Lagoon (2004)
"I want to set the story in Victorian times during the exploration of the Amazon. The original Creature was essentially King Kong, but I want to make it more a 'beauty and the beast' fable. I want the look and feel to be akin to Jules Verne's tales like 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. I want to increase the horror edge and make it really scary, because my archaeological explorers will discover an area of the Amazon that has been kept on a tangential track of evolution alongside mankind. So there will be giant carnivorous squid, prehistoric sharks and weird alternate lifeforms that shouldn't really exist in such a fresh-water environment. Fish do truly have either an angelic or devilish quality, and I want to play on that. The Creature will be the Man of this exotic world," del Toro explains. "He will be very smart and able to turn the tables on his human hunters. I have a scene where the hunters find fossil remains and realize that the Creature's brain cavity is larger than a human one. He's not the lumbering, roaring monster of Ricou Browning's day, but a sophisticated Gill Man that will come to life through a mix of CGI and a man in a suit. In the original film, the Creature falls in love with the Julie Adams character. The twist in my version is that the girl will also fall in love with him. I want her to almost get it on with the Creature!"
Summary written by Guillermo del Toro
Hope I'm not so incredibly worthless now. Thanks for the awesome site.
--DarkLantern007
Meanwhile, I got the rather mundane pictures from Prague and the set of HELLBOY. No, no Hellboy. No, no Abe Sapien. No, not really anything super cool or even cool. BUT... perhaps by printing these pictures which show nothing of note, we will cause some blessed god to bestow upon us the real SPY PICS that we're hankering for. The stuff with the cool sets. But I'll get to that in just a bit...
So I'm in Prague a few weeks ago and this impossibly old man dressed in
a trenchcoat that resembles a collection of rags stitched together more
than anything you might find at London Fog, limps up to me and whispers
in Czech "Hello, would you be interested in seeing something
interesting?" Since I don't know any Czech, I play Ugly American and
shout, "I don't know what you're saying old man, and while I realize
that I'm in YOUR country, would you mind speaking MY language?" The old
gent nods and repeats the question in my native tongue. Immediately I
have an urge to run, for I have the distinct feeling he's about to show
me what's under that coat of his (Prague's a bit cheeky that way). Then
he whispers, "Hellllllboyyyyyy" and extends a gnarled excuse for a
finger towards the hills above Prague. "Let's go" I say.
And so we do.
Limp and I snake our way across the Charles Bridge, past Prague Castle and forty minutes later we reach a sign that says "Hellboy Parking". Limp extends his hand and so I slap him five and say, "Thanks dude. Stay in school." Immediately he vanishes into thin air.
No joke. Gone. Poof.
I have a couple theories about this. First, I think my forceful American high five slapping sent a shockwave through his body that disrupted his flow of energy, thereby causing all of his moelcules to disband simultanesouly.
Or second, he's magic. One of the two.
Anyway, moments later I'm sneaking past security like a ninja tourist, only this ninja is wearing jeans and a smile. Seriously, security let me RIGHT in. Weird.
And then I danced, danced, danced. And then they threw me out. But not before I got some pics of one of the sets.
Basically, this block has been dressed to look like New York, although the car's license plates all said New Jersey. Odd, eh? Sorry about the black and white photos. It's all I had.
If you use ANY of this, please call me DJ Crystal Pepsi.
Hey folks, Harry here again. Meanwhile... over at Hellsite.Com, the official film website, they've been doing a pretty great job of giving us little peeks here and there at what Guillermo is doing on the film... with a great "Guillermo Said" then "Mignola Said" commentary on each image. Here's a couple of things featured over there... First is Hellboy's wondrous big ass gun. Here ya go...
Now the cool thing is that it looks like SIDESHOW/WETA is going to be making HELLBOY Guns and Gloves for us geeks to own. I don't know about you, but I want a Hellboy Gun that actually fires for home protection. What is that, 70 calibre? 90 calibre? Whatever, if ya shot it, it'd drive ya through a wall with the kick I'd bet. Next is a set design for the ICE CAVE. A very early scene in the movie. Looking at this, you begin to get an idea of some of the scale and sense of wonder that Guillermo is creating for HELLBOY.
