Del Toro at Comic Con on Hellboy and Hobbit
One of the most annoying things living in Australia is that we never get the big conventions down here. Over the weekend the New York comic-con took place, and favorite director Guillermo del Toro spoke on the future of the Hobbit, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
Along with cast and crew from Hellboy, del Toro answered questions about the production of the film after they aired the extended trailer for lucky fans. "For me, it was much more difficult to shoot this one than the first one, because, obviously, I have disgustingly gained weight, and I'm older," del Toro joked in the panel on April 19.
"The first movie was ambitious, and we got it to be the size it got to be at $66 million. ... This one we knew we wanted to be two [to] three times bigger. I wrote some really crazy scenes that were being dropped, and when the time came for us not to drop any more, we still cut back with an $85 million budget. I had to make it compete with other movies this summer that are costing two or three times more, so that took a toll on my gonads."
The story for Hellboy 2 is an original idea written by del Toro and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, featuring a new character, Johann Krauss, a disembodied ectoplasmic spirit who survives in a containment suit. And while physically the character is played by John Alexander, the voice is someone quite surprising.
"We looked for a voice of Johann everywhere," he said. "I originally thought of an actual German actor to play him, but, unfortunately, the German actor we tried, his vocal quality exactly matched, no matter what we did, the hissing effects of Johann's mechanical mouth and bulbs. So it sounded like a prolonged stomach cramp or fart. I kept looking for someone, and on one good day I had an insane idea that fortunately came to fruition. I contacted Seth McFarland [Family Guy], and he is now the voice of Johann."
As for the Hobbit, it looks as if we may hear about del Toro’s involvement in the next few days. "It's my personal belief that in the next four of five days ... we will know if we were able to conclude every legal thing that is pending for me to be able to do it or not," del Toro said in the same panel. "I can assure you that very soon we will know, and that's all I can say about that. Because, frankly, you wake up to a lawsuit of the week. I hope I get to do it."