If you’re visiting a real movie set for the first time, you can’t do much better than
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY—an epic scale, large budget summer adventure from a director who’s both a fanboy and an auteur. (That’s quantity and
quality, folks.) And that’s exactly where I found myself in late October of last year; on the way to Budapest to tour the sets, chat up cast and crew, and attempt to conquer Hungary in the name of JoBlo.com. Now, after a lengthy and strict embargo (I swear I saw passages from the Book of Revelations in that confidentiality agreement), it’s my pleasure to finally share with you guys all the cool stuff I saw. But first a little bit about the movie itself…
A lot has happened
since we last saw the BPRD. Hellboy and Liz are living together and trying to
make a serious relationship work. Abe Sapien finds himself a more indispensable
member of the team this time around, as well as experiencing the human emotion
called “love” for the first time. A new ectoplasmic psychic named
Johann has come in to head up the BPRD (and maybe come between Liz and Red).
And while all this drama is going on, the prince of the underworld land of Bethmoora
has decided to rebel against his aging father and unleash an army of fantasy
creatures and mythical proportions upon the world.
BUDAPEST AND THE KING’S COUNCIL CHAMBER
Despite a late night of dining with…er, next to Tim Curry and Ioan Gruffudd, and “studious film discussion” at local bars, we rose early the next afternoon for a bus tour
of Budapest. Our lovely guide Rita regaled us with tales of the city’s history
and her ongoing war with the phone company, before dropping us off at the Kiscelli
Museum. Here the King’s Council Chamber set for HELLBOY II was being built inside
an 18th century church and production designer Stephen Scott gave us a look
at what they were working on. All along the walls of the stone sanctuary were
enormous rusted boilers probably 20-30 feet high (“Antal & Co.”
was written on the front of each, not sure of the significance), and at the
end of the room was a giant platform where King Balor would sit. His throne
was being built in front of a large furnace pipe with CG fire to engulf his head later in post. Scott had been working on the film since mid-2006; with the first movie being shot in Prague, they had only been able to reuse a few select doors from the set, with pretty much everything else having to be built from scratch again. The King’s chamber where we stood had been under construction for two weeks, with one more left to polish out the details before filming began.
Once our tour finished, we tearfully said goodbye to Rita and headed to a nearby
restaurant to meet two of the film’s more regal stars, Luke Goss and Anna Walton.
Over drinks (Note: “water with gas” isn’t as funny as it sounds),
we spoke with the actors who play the twin prince and princess at the heart of the
film’s conflict.
In HELLBOY II, Goss stars as Prince Nuada, a role written for him specifically
by Del Toro. And in “traditional Del Toro fashion,” Goss says the
Prince is a well-rounded bad guy driven by internal conflict—in this case pride
for his people. While the part was tailored to the 39 year old actor, it wasn’t
a walk in the park by any means. Goss first trained 8 weeks for the rigorous
stunts and fight scenes, specifically with weapons such as swords and spears.
Once filming began, he then had to endure 5 hours of makeup every day to cover
his entire face with a thin layer of scarring, an ordeal he swears to never
do again in the future (except for Guillermo). And you can add to that a brutal schedule—7
weeks straight of 21 hour days, including a wake up call at 11:45 PM. But
Goss says the hard work is worth it for the finished film, which, unlike a lot
of typical big budget fare, won’t require audiences to forgive it’s faults in
order to enjoy it. He attributes that to director Del Toro…”By sheer
excellence, he’s won the game.”
Anna Walton
The name Anna Walton might not mean much to you now, but chances are you’ll
hear more from her in 2008, as she appears in two of the year’s big sci-fi fantasy
movies: HELLBOY II and THE MUTANT CHRONICLES. A former model and Oxford graduate,
Walton was also unfairly down to earth and genuinely excited about her role
in the sequel as Princess Nuala, the “good girl” counterpart to Luke
Goss’ evil prince. Her character also has an unlikely love interest in Abe Sapien,
who she claimed wasn’t hard to fall in love with, save for the gills. While
acting as a romantic figure and moral compass for the inhabitants of the film,
Walton deeply regretted not being involved with any of the movie’s action spectacle.
And when we asked what sequence she was most excited to see in the finished
film, she said the “majestic and cavernous” Golden Army set where
they staged an action scene using gymnasts and tumblers that should be “phenomenal.”
Walton admitted to not being too in to comic books before the film, but after
seeing the first HELLBOY and
PAN’S LABYRINTH she wanted to work with Del Toro. And
it looks like some of the director’s enthusiasm has rubbed off on the actress,
who now considers herself a fan, having just finished Neil Gaiman’s “Death: The High Cost of Living” (and
aching to be in the impending film adaptation).
With bellies full of delicious Hungarian delicacies, we made the hour drive
outside of Budapest to the brand new Korda Studios, currently home to its flagship
production, HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY. Korda only recently opened their first
four soundstages in April of this year, with construction on schedule to complete
the rest of the studio by early 2008. It was around 9 PM before we were waved
through the gate, but the place was alive and kicking with hundreds of HELLBOY II crew members, all of whom were on their third week of grueling all-night
shoots.
As we waited in the lobby of the main building for our press passes I was surprised
at how normal everything was …that is, until I realized
the thing I was leaning against was a a gigantic golden mechanical egg, which we would later find out was a member of the Golden Army. Moments later two PAs walked by carrying a large pair of seriously demonic angel wings. Suck me sideways; I was on the set of a movie.
After a few minutes we were met once again by production designer Stephen Scott,
who took us on a tour of the Art Department and production offices. Aside from
all the expected rooms and hallways filled with drawings, sketches and models,
here are some highlights we saw:
The unit publicist next led us on to one of the large soundstages and as we passed by a rack full of Hellboy’s trademark brown coats and a Doug Jones double decked out in full Abe Sabien makeup, it finally hit me that I was about to witness some movie magic. Eventually we ended up at the home of the Angel of Death, a giant cocoon-shaped
dwelling, almost like an oversized wasp’s nest, that was set up against a greenscreen
backdrop. The outside entrance to the lair was made to look like a graveyard,
with cobwebs and decomposing corpses littered on the ground. The interior was
dark and dirty, with walls that were lined with rows and rows of large amber-colored
jars, each containing a dead soul. (It was very much in keeping with Del Toro’s
“things in jars” motif that was prevalent in DEVIL’S BACKBONE and
PAN’S LABYRINTH.) Also, inside the lair were Selma Blair, a Hellboy double,
and Doug Jones in his Angel of Death costume—and all three being directed by
Guillermo Del Toro.
After a few moments of soaking everything in, Del Toro walks over, shakes my
hand and starts shooting the shit with everyone like we were old drinking buddies.
The man was obviously exhausted (this was day 105 of shooting), but once he
got going he didn’t stop; telling us about the shoot so far, what to see while
we were in Budapest, what he had planned for the future, and more. (For all
the juicy details, check back next week for the full interview!)
We chatted in between takes and watched him direct the actors on the monitors.
It was a few minutes before I realized that the man sitting in front of the
monitors, less than a foot from my person, was Oscar-winning director of photography
Guillermo Navarro. I gathered up the courage to tell him how much I loved his
work in PAN’S LABYRINTH and then let him get back to his job of making this movie
look entirely kickass.
You see this kind of thing on DVD special features all the time, but there’s
something different about watching a real scene being shot live in front of
you. Del Toro and Navarro would look at each detail, spending several minutes
just getting the best position between the two characters in camera, ensuring
the most visually interesting composition possible. This is their fifth movie
together and the level of trust and high expectations is apparent. And because
this particular shot involved some practical effects with the angel wings, Del
Toro insisted on rehearsals, even after they were ready to shoot. In all, we
spent over an hour watching them film, and they got through about 5 lines of
dialogue. That attention to detail explains why they’ve been working 21 days
on the Angel of Death sequence, which is about 4 minutes of the final film, and why
they’re clocking in on a grand total 120-day shoot.
As for the scene itself, I’m at an impasse here: what we saw being shot was
very cool, but it occurs at a very pivotal point in the movie and carries with
it a fairly big SPOILER WARNING.
First, here’s a short SPOILER-FREE version:
Stuff happens and Doug Jones’ costume will haunt my nightmares forever.
And below is a detailed SPOILER-FILLED VERSION!!!:
In the center of the lair, Hellboy is laying on the ground, injured to the
point of what looks like near death. Liz Sherman holds his hand, teary eyed,
when she is startled by the Angel of Death. There’s a quick shot of her in the trailer, but it doesn’t do justice to how creepy and unsettling the character was in person. First off the Angel is a female, with a disturbingly feminine skeletal figure, long black hair and dress-like robes. The top half
of her face looks like a flat plate of sheer bone, as if her skull exploded
outward, with no eyes and disgusting rotted teeth. If that wasn’t enough, she
has wings—large black feathery wings that hold dozens of eyes that blink and
move when she speaks. All together, it made the Pale Man look like a Care Bear.
So the Angel appears in front of Liz, spreads her wings, and in a raspy voice
tells her that she can save ol’ Red, but doing so will come at a great price
and sacrifice. When Liz agrees, the Angel says, “You will suffer more than
anyone.” To which Liz responds, “I’ll deal with it.”
/END SPOILERS
We watched them film this scene a few times. During one take, Doug leaned back
slightly and nearly crushed himself under the weight of his wings. Because of
the motorized eyes and the massive span, the angel’s wings weigh over 40 pounds
and have to be hooked up to a wire rig so that Doug doesn’t get adult onset
scoliosis. While the stunt team set up to redo the wing harness, we departed
from the Angel of Death’s lair.
Random Transitional Story:
It was close to two in the morning now and people were starting to get
hungry, when one of the publicists began enchanting us with tales of delicious
cookies, cakes and coffee. And thus began our adventure across Korda Studios
in search of sustenance. Along the way we somehow lost half the journalists
in our group, but the few worthy survivors made it to the craft services tent
where in-costume cast and crew members were sitting down for “lunch.” (Night shoots screw
up everybody’s schedule.) And I don’t know if this was a Hungarian thing or
a misinterpreted recipe, but at some point we were exposed to what we were told was cheesecake…except that it was made with ricotta instead of cream cheese. Good times in
Budapest!
We visited the New York City street set two times: once on our tour with Stephen
Scott when it was empty and available for detailed inspection, and again when
it was packed full of cast and crew as Guillermo prepared to shoot a giant action
sequence.
The set, built outside on a studio backlot, was a full scale replica of a New
York City block, specifically one underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. And it was
obvious some bad juju went down here. Cars were crushed, burned and stacked
on top of each other. Windows were smashed. Street signs were flattened or ripped
from the ground. And on one end of the block, a massive hole stood where a large
monster called an Elemental had crawled out and was showing Hellboy a bad time. The
whole thing took 14 weeks to build and the level of detail was unbelievable—from
hand drawn graffiti (“Ghost Pig!”) to real newspapers in the stands
to the movie theater showing SEE YOU NEXT WEDNESDAY (a nod to John Landis).
We even watched crew members bring out individual pieces of broken car parts
and sprinkle fresh shattered glass on the street.
It was cold as hell when we returned a second time later that night, but our shivering bones
were forgotten when we were met by an excited and energetic Guillermo Del Toro.
The man was overseeing the prep work for a major stunt involving Hellboy getting
to the top of a building so he can fire a gun at the Elemental, a new weapon
delightfully referred to as the Big Baby. While we talked, Guillermo had someone
bring out the Big Baby for us to see and it definitely lived up to the first
part of its name. Like the Samaritan, it was insanely large and fit right in
to the comic book world with its six cannon sized barrels and matching ammunition.
As Del Toro demonstrated locking and loading the sucker, he pointed it at me,
which was one of the greatest honors of my life.
As the night wore on and the crew prepared to shoot the sequence, we bid farewell
to the busy filmmaker and prepared to leave Korda and HELLBOY II, but not before
one last stop…
At this point it was after 3 AM and although we were tired, nobody wanted
to leave without seeing all the cool creature suits we’d heard so much about.
There were pieces of Hellboy and Abe scattered about, but everyone focused their
attention on the new characters made for the sequel. First up was the character
that Del Toro raved about, the Prince’s oversized bodyguard Wink. Unfortunately
the full Wink suit had been dismantled for the night but we did see his head
(think a troll with muttonchops and tusks), as well as his enormous armored arms, complete
with mechanical hands that could shoot out on a chain (presumably to hit someone)
and then retract back. This action was amazingly all done practical within the
suit, something to keep in mind next year when you’re seeing it on the big screen.
Next we got a demonstration of Johann, one of the main new characters, who
is essentially a suit full of ectoplasm. Del Toro originally conceived him as
he is in the comics (a suit with a light bulb for a head), but due to costly
CGI the idea was scrapped. Instead, Johann is done practically, with a noggin
that’s half bubble, half gas mask and fills up with expressive lighted smoke.
The working effect is very cool and should look awesome on film.
Finally we got quick peeks at a few of the other characters that populate the
world, including:
All the heads had radio controlled faces, which were incredibly expressive
when demonstrated by the Spectral Motion team. As the guys showed us their stuff,
they described HELLBOY II as “Guillermo’s Harryhausen film,” which
makes complete sense. And despite Halloween being a few days away, nobody would
let me take any of the costumes home to wear.
And thus ended my time with HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY and Budapest. I got
to see massive destruction on a Hulk-like scale, as well as the filming of a
very intimate and important moment in the potential trilogy. Just being somewhere
where movies are made was magical enough to leave me in a perpetual state of “Holy crap!” the entire time.
Thanks to the fine folks at Universal for putting this all together and for
fulfilling one of my lifelong dreams: having somebody waiting for me at the
airport with a sign that has my name on it. I can die a complete and satisfied
man now.
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY opens on July 11, 2008. And trust me; you’re gonna wanna see this one, folks.