14 DAY TRIAL // The first “Hellboy” movie came out in 2004 and the second in 2008. Neither was a smashing box office hit, but both became cult classics, which explains fans’ interest in a promised threequel. Guillermo del Toro envisioned the story as a trilogy, but the underwhelming performance of the first 2 films has made it impossible for him to find funding for the final installment.
With all this, he’s not losing hope. In a recent interview that’s just now starting to get attention on Tumblr, del Toro says that the third “Hellboy” film could still be made if the “Pacific Rim” sequel coming out in the summer of 2017 turns out to be a hit.
Money makes the world spin
Even so, it’s a long shot. “Pacific Rim” opened to excellent buzz but even at over $400 million (€369.3 million) in international ticket sales, it was a disappointment for the studio.
The sequel has to do better, and del Toro is aware of that. If it performs better, then del Toro gets an ace up his sleeve in his negotiations with studios for the third “Hellboy” film.
As things stand today, finally bringing it to the big screen feels like the most unlikely thing ever.
“The hard fact is that [it]’s going to need about $120 million [€110.8 million] and there’s nobody knocking down our doors to give it to us… it’s a little beyond Kickstarter. It would be great to complete the trilogy. But in a way I don’t see the world - the industry - supporting that idea,” he says.
The strange thing about this situation is that pretty much everyone involved wants to see the movie happen: the fans have been begging for it for years, leading man Ron Pearlman has been campaigning for it non-stop, and del Toro has been doing his share to bring more awareness to the project.
Unfortunately, these are not the right people to turn to when it comes to financing: making movies is a business, so Hollywood studios are reluctant to fund projects that would not have a guaranteed profit.
When is the right time to start losing hope?
When is the right time to start losing hope for ‘Hellboy 3,” you might wonder? Well, about now would be a good time: there have been situations in which projects got stuck in production limbo for years and even decades before they got a new installment, but “Hellboy” doesn’t seem to fit the bill.
Even if del Toro manages to get that kind of money for the film’s budget by 2017, which would mean he could, at least from a financial point of view, start production after he’s done with “Pacific Rim 2,” there’s still the question of his busy schedule.
Del Toro is the kind of director who takes his time with his movies, to make sure he delivers only the best kind of work he can put in. For instance, in order to direct the “Pacific Rim” sequel, he dropped out of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” and Warner Bros.’ “Justice League Dark.”
In other words, to make “Hellboy 3,” he needs to be booked in advance.
In this context, it would be best to assume the movie won’t be made and then be pleasantly surprised if it’s made, than to get excited about it and have your heart broken all over again when it doesn’t happen.