'Hellboy' reboot director says R-rating will allow him to 'take off the cuffs'

Hellboy reboot director Neil Marshall has said that his film’s likely R-rating will help him “take off the cuffs” when it comes to adapting writer-artist Mike Mignola’s original comics. The two previous films to feature the character, Guillermo del Toro’s 2004 movie, Hellboy, and the same director’s 2008 sequel, Hellboy: The Golden Army, were both rated PG-13.

“We’ve been granted permission to do it R-rated, which for me is just like taking the cuffs off,” Marshall told fellow filmmaker Mick Garris on the most recent episode of the latter’s podcast, Post Mortem. “It’s like, okay, so now we can just make the movie we want to make. It’s not like I’m going to force it to be R-rated, but if it happens to come out that way, just because of my own sensibilities, then fine. And nobody’s going to stop us. So, that’s the main [difference]. And I’m sure, obviously, the success of things like Deadpool and Logan have not hurt that cause. But, also, when you go back the original material, it is kind of bloody, so I’m going to embrace that.”

Marshall also said that he planned on using practical effects whenever possible on the movie, which will star David Harbour (Stranger Things) as the titular superhero.

“It’s definitely going to be as practical as we can possibly make it,” insisted Marshall, whose credits include 2005’s much-beloved horror film The Descent and the Game of Thrones episodes “Blackwater” and “The Watchers on the Wall.” “I love to do stuff in camera whenever I possibly can, and use CG as the amazing tool that it is, to enhance or expand upon the world, but not to use it to replace reality, when you can do it [for] real.”

Hear Garris’ full interview with Marshall at the PodcastOne website.