The Sly Oyster | culture & entertainment on the sly

I find these superhero toy parodies of the PC/Mac commercials fairly odd yet engrossing. It started as a Marvel vs. DC Comics thing. It’s a tiny internet meme, but one who’s appeal seems tapped into a very dry geeky humor. We’re talkin’ champagne dry here.

So Hellboy’s been added to the mix, except he’s with Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR!). It would have been nice if they made a Hancock toy and he could have shown up all drunk and then it would have featured every superhero from this summer, excluding Wall-E of course. Maybe the creators of this could work on that.

Hopefully, by now you’ve gone out and seen Hellboy II. We might offer up our full review tonight, but suffice it to say, this was a work that could serve to inspire future filmmakers everywhere.  Which is to say, that young kids everywhere will be reenacting this movie in their basement or backyards for years to come.  The flip side of that is that the movie is trifling - a sumptuous summer concoction that amounts to a fun romp.  Fun to look at, fun to watch, but of little import.  If you’re still scratching your head and saying, “what the F is Hellboy?”, then io9 has a nice look at the character’s past and possible future in both comics and the movies.

Update: Hellboy is also playing videogames with Chuck, auditioning for a girls group, hanging with the American Gladiators and taking a moment to film a PSA.  All good stuff, but the Lipton one is still the best.

I don’t know if this is a television commercial or just an internet funny, but it makes me wish that Guillermo del Torro filmed lots of these little promotions with Hellboy going on Letterman, Leno, Kimmel and making the rounds at say, The View, Live with Regis and Kelly, etc.

It would be bizarre and funny much like the clip below. Also, does it get any better than hearing James Lipton give a “booyah?”

Yeah, yeah.  It’s becoming apparent that The Dark Knight is the greatest movie ever made.  All the early screenings are hitting the net and you can’t cross the street without people throwing around superlatives like Godfather II or Heat or epicfuckingmoviethat’sthebestthingevermade. It also doesn’t hurt that the push for Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar has already started.

Be that as it may, we can now turn our attention to promoting another movie.  Hellboy. I tried explaining the premise behind the franchise to a co-worker a few days ago (he also celebrated the recent SJC Second Amendment decision, there is no correlation to what I’m about to say, except that I thought you should know this.  Also, I’m going to get him to take me to a shooting range.  See, dreams do come true!) and he was just baffled by it.

I was like, so Satan’s child gets sucked through a dimensional portal to Earth by the Nazis during WW II, except he’s rescued by a benevolent American and raised like a human and he protects us from mystical  creatures.  He likes to drink and cuss and eat Snickers and he loves cats.  Basically, he’s like a petulant teenager, except he has horns and a huge right hand that may or may not one day bring about the apocalypse.

I wish I captured his facial expression.  Priceless.  But my guess is he’s now intrigued enough to go and see Hellboy II: The Golden Army when it opens July 11.

According to John Anderson of Variety, “In a previous life, del Toro might have been a maker of clocks — clocks inhabited by gargoyles instead of cuckoos, and which exploded on the hour. But there’s a precision to the visual ornateness of “Hellboy II” that exceeds even that of its predecessor. It’s certainly a more deliberately (and successfully) funny movie, thanks largely to the drily ironic Hellboy — Ron Perlman, who returns with the rest of the cast, and without whom an onscreen Hellboy would have been almost unthinkable.”

Anderson thinks that del Toro got a huge push from Universal, but if anything the studio hampered del Toro’s vision the first time around almost neutering the franchise from the onset.  Given a second chance, it is abundantly clear that del Toro’s chutzpah oozes out of every frame and second of film.  To call him a visionary director would be to short change just what an impressive run he has been on over his last four or five pictures.   MORE »

Adidas has teamed up with Hellboy to create the two most badass pair of kicks around.

Outstanding street wear brand Adidas Originals is proud to announce a unique tri-collaboration project for the fall/winter season 2008. It will launch two sneakers to coincide with the global release of the Hellboy II ‘The Golden Army’ movie in August 2008. The collaboration brings together adidas Originals, Universal Studios & Guillermo Del Toro, the film’s director, and Dark Horse Comics & Mike Mignola, the original comic book artist of Hellboy. Together, this tri-project has produced two outstanding sneakers: the Forum Mid-Golden Army and the Stan Mid-Hellboy.

The Forum Mid-Golden Army takes the court standard and mixes the appropriate trio of gold, black and white with Hellboy lettering across the Velcro strap, with an image of Ron Perlman as the titular demonic anti-hero on the outsole and footbed. Additionally, adidas Originals created a jaw-dropping statement with the Stan Mid-Hellboy in cooperation with Dark Horse Comics & Mike Mignola. The black shoe has the image of Hellboy printed on its side in red and extra details on the inner and outer sole, like a collection of three extra footbeds, plus lace jewels, a mini-comic and unique tongue branding. Both the Forum Mid-Golden Army and the Stan Mid-Hellboy come in a specially designed shoe box and different tissue wrappings, making them true collector pieces.

The shoes will both be released worldwide in a limited edition run, with only 5,000 pairs of the Forum Mid-Golden Army to be sold in adidas Originals stores and other outlets. 1,000 pairs of the Stan Mid-Hellboy will be available.  The demonic shoes will set you back about $100 for the Forum Mid-Golden Army and $150 for the Stan Mid-Hellboy.  I’m totally getting the Forum Mid. [via]

Forum Mid

Stan Mid

This one dropped during American Idol, which I don’t watch. So, um, at least Hellboy is getting exposed to a huge audience. Just not sure how many people watching American Idol would be stoked to go see Red in action.

My confession is thus: More than Iron Man, The DarK Knight or even Indiana Jones the movie I’m most looking forward to this summer is Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

There’s no reason behind it, but I sort of jibe to the Hellboy world and how he’s this petulant teenager that may or may not be the son of Satan, but rather than succumb to his destiny he chooses to be good.  That makes the tagline of this poster really sweet: “Believe it or not he’s the good guy.”

Director Guillermo del Toro looks to be hitting his stride creatively and it’s kind of cool to see this movie advertised as “From the visionary directory of Pan’s Labyrinth.” [coming soon]

Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army hits theaters on July 11th 2008.

Almost forgot about this one. IGN debuted the trailer this afternoon and it’s a doozy. We’re goo-goo for Hellboy and pretty pleased that director Guillermo del Torro was able to convince Universal to make a sequel. Hopefully, this one delivers so that we may get a third and final movie in a sweet Hellboy trilogy.

After Pan’s Labyrinth audiences should be more accustomed to del Torro’s sense of visual flair and maybe more willing to give this movie a shot. Unlike the first one that was brushed aside until it did well on DVD.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army arrives in theaters on July 11, 2008

IGN has gotten their hands on some stills from the upcoming Guillermo del Torro (Pan’s Labrynth) Hellboy sequel.  Even better than these pictures, which are sort of … okay, is the news that the teaser trailer for the film will debut on Thursday at 3 p.m.

Based on these images it doesn’t seem that the overall design of the film or characters are a radical departure from the first film, though Selma Blair as pyrokenetic Liz Sherman certainly looks to be channelling her inner Joat Jett and Sarah Connor fetish.

The gentleman on the left is a new addition to the BPRD, or the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Development, named Johann, a psychic who exists in the form of a sentient cloud and is forced to wear that self-containing suit.

For the other two pictures of our favorite kitty-loving hero from hell jump away. MORE »

We love the art of the movie one-sheet.  There is almost nothing better (with the exception of maybe a well done concert poster) in terms of pop art.  When you see one, it evokes a certain emotional feeling for a movie, or entices you to dig just a bit deeper for more information about a flick.

Recently, the Cloverfield one sheets have been fantastic - the picture of the headless Statue of Liberty looking onto a smoke filled Manhattan evokes a horrible doomsday event.

Thanks to Joblo, we’ve got two more for you.  One is for the upcoming Hellboy sequel and the other is for Pixar’s 2008 release Wall-E.  Both are representing, but we like the Pixar one-sheet just a tad more.

HELLBOY 2:THE GOLDEN ARMY

WALL-E

Guillermo del Torro has turned to a familiar face by casting Luke Goss as the villian for the latest Hellboy adventure. Goss, you may recall played the villian Nomak in del Torro’s Blade II.

This time around he’s going to be playing Prince Nuada, or the guy who can play in our world and the underworld. He recruits an army of evil creatures, which no doubt Hellboy will put a stop to it by the end of the movie.

All of the gang will be back from the first movie, including Ron Perlman, Selma Blair and Doug Jones. Can’t wait to see what they do this time around, especially since they won’t be hampered by back stories and maybe they’ll have a slightly larger budget to work with.

Guillermo del Toro jumped right back into the saddle after his acclaimed film, Pan’s Labyrinth, won a few Oscars. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is lensing right now in Budapest. This time out Hellboy and the gang will be attempting to put down an uprising by mythical creatures. Rumors are there will be evil fairies and elves. Anyway, The Age (via Joblo) sat down with Guillermo to shed some light on this project.

Hellboy 2 was written while del Toro was working on Pan’s Labyrinth. There might have been, he says, some crossover between the two films: he conferred on the Hellboy 2 story with Hellboy’s comic-book creator, Mike Mignola.

But the first draft he came back with, he says, shocked Mignola. “Mike was quite horrified by how much I had deviated from what we had talked about, especially at some of the quote, unquote whimsical elements, the parts about magic and the fairy world. But then fortunately, he saw Pan’s Labyrinth” - the darkest and most devastating of fairytales, a lyrical but unsettling film in which the borders between the world of the imagination and the world of the everyday are blurred - “and he realised that the two movies would have some parallels”.

We couldn’t be more excited. We’re bigtime Hellboy geeks. Loved the comic by Mike Mingola, Hellboy was one of our favorite pieces of popcorn cinema, and we’re even down with the animated movies. All of them are smart, emotional, funny, adventuresome and more than anything engaging. We could watch the movies over and over and over again, if for nothing else than for Ron Perleman. The entire cast is back for the second go round. And according to IGN, the second movie plants some seeds for a final chapter towards a Hellboy trilogy.

“I’ve talked to [Hellboy creator Mike] Mignola about the third one. He seemed to like [my idea], and that is that the way the love story would pay off in the third movie would be completely unexpected,” hints del Toro. “I knew what I wanted to do on the first one, but I had no idea if we ever would get to do a second one. And now that we are I really am laying down the breadcrumbs that will lead you to a very, very — hopefully — powerful denouement of that loving couple.”

Which isn’t to say that Hellboy 2: The Golden Army will be a cliffhanger. Whether or not a third film in the series gets made will come down to how part two performs financially (after all, Universal had no problem killing another would-be franchise recently, Josh Whedon’s Serenity, when it underperformed), and del Toro knows that better than anyone.

“The second one is self-contained and if we never get to do the third one there’s only one element that people will have hanging where they will go, ‘Oh Jesus, I wish they had done a third one.’ But if not, it’s fine,” says del Toro, before adding with a grin, “If anyone listening has $80 million, we can assure you we can do a third one.”

Paging Dr. Gates and Dr. Buffet stat! I’m sure someone in Hollywood has $80 million to piss down a celluloid drain, right?

How’s everyone’s morning going? It was tough waking up we stayed up late to catch 24 on the Tivo after watching Heroes live. Gotta say it seems like 24 might be hitting a wall. Oh my gosh! Jack defied orders again? No way! He broke into a consul? C’mon writers of the show think up something original. It’s starting to feel like all five seasons are rolling into one, and there isn’t any ‘Kim Bauer trapped by cougars’ plotlines to keep the comedy rolling.

As for Heroes, well it was a good episode not a great one. Lots of nice reveals at the end with the Petrelli matriarch bossing around Mr. Haitian. The set up for a Sylar versus Peter showdown next week. And Hiro finally getting ahold of his samarai sword.

But what really let us down was the supposed Spiderman 3 trailer with exclusive footage. There wasn’t anything there that was particularly new. But you can head over to NBC today to watch seven minutes of footage. But hurry the footage expires by 9 p.m. This installment of Spidey may also be the last one for star Tobey Maguire, according to Chud. They also have a nice little interview with Marvel uber-geek Avi Arad.

The L.A. Daily News (via Superero Hype) has a great interview with actor Ron Perlman. He dishes that filming will begin in May for Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. No plot details yet, but count us excited. Guillermo del Torro was a household name for geeks when he filmed the first Hellboy, but after the magnificence of Pan’s Labrynth the director is finally getting his due from all sorts of people.

And if that wasn’t enough for you the Favs has a nice update on the production of Ironman over at the Myspace Group he set up. Gotta say Ironman, at least by the cast and the Favs’s passion for the material could shape up to to join X-Men and Spider-man atop the Marvel film mountain.

First off, the sets are all being built, the locations are locked and the cast is, for the most part, set. As you all know, RDJ, Gwyneth, T Howard, and Jeff Bridges are all on board. We’ve had a week of rehearsals and I’m currently working with the writers to tailor the material accordingly. Mr. Bridges has a haircut that will no doubt be of interest to any of you fans of the books. Speaking of the the books, Joe Quesada, Adi Granov and myself have been collaborating on a very cool project that you will soon be hearing about. You want to know more, pester Marvel publishing.

Second, I am going up to visit ILM and the Ranch. I’ve never been and am as stoked as any of you can imagine. I love my job.

Thirdly, Stan Winston Studios has been unveiling suits for us. Once again, they have exceeded our expectations. Those of you who follow my career know that I am very skeptical about the overuse of CGI. I am happy to report that the film will be a healthy mix of both computer generated and practical effects. My goal is to make the two integrate in a way that they usually do not.

Lastly, this thing is huge. I’ve never been involved with a film this size. I’ve been prepping for almost a year and feel extremely confident in the enormously qualified team we’ve assembled. I would be lying, however, if I didn’t admit that the scale of this project was daunting. I’m pretty confident that I’ve done and will continue to do my homework and that I’m ready, but so much is unknown. I feel like a ship’s captain about to sail for the New World. Who can truly predict weather fortune or disaster awaits in the great unknown? Regardless, I thank God every day for his blessings.

Anyway hope that was enough Superhero news for you this morning. We’ll be back today with some stuff on Zak Snyder’s 300, as we’re totally stoked for that little bit of film goodness this week. Besides Watchmen, he’s got an interesting little project set up in the pipes.