Drat!  My TiVo has been acting up lately, locking up at the most inappropriate times.  The most recent lock up failed to record Hellboy: Blood and Iron, the second Hellboy Animated movie.  I was really looking forward to it too.  Guess, I’ll have to wait until it hits on DVD to pick it up.

In our interviews with Tad Stones, he has always said a third picture was in the works, but only if the first two did well.

no green light yet but when I have time I proceed as if we have one so that means organizing reference for my crew.  As I’ve said previously, The Phantom Claw highlights the “mad scientist” side of Hellboy and nobody designs a mad scientist lab like Mike Mignola.

The story idea sounds pretty darn cool, and I hope we get to see a cameo by Lobster Johnson.  Let’s hope everyone gets the go to move on with this project.

via Hellboy Animated 

In our interviews with Tad Stones, he’s alluded to future Hellboy Animated projects waiting in the wings. Tad posted on his blog site a wee bit of information on the third film called The Phantom Claw. WOOT! How awesome of a title is that?

The Phantom Claw will be an original Hellboy movie that has its roots in the comics, expands on several themes.

When it came time to talk seriously about the third movie, three elements resurfaced: Lobster Johnson, Hellboy’s origin, and classic Universal Monster movies. If Sword of Storms was the folklore side of Hellboy, Blood and Iron the vampire/Hammer Films side then The Phantom Claw is the mad scientist/weird technology aspect of Hellboy stories. This film will be completely different than the first two.

Finally, a few general notes then I have to get back to the script. Abe and Liz are not along on this adventure. Professor Broom only sends Hellboy and Kate Corrigan to investigate the castle where Hellboy was summoned to Earth. No one has been back there since the War, kept out by a secret society working behind the scenes. (Yes, the animated version has a different origin locale than the feature which is different from the comic). Lobster Johnson will appear in various forms but the movie is not about him. The closest comic to his role is Conqueror Worm and a variation of the scene that you see above will be in the movie. There will be glimpses of Ilsa, Leopold and Kronen in the flashbacks to Hellboy’s origin but they’ll be closest to their comic counterparts. Rasputin is the major villain although we’ll introduce another who Mike is so excited about that he’s threatened to design the guy himself. Cool.

Cool indeed Tad! Can’t wait to see it!

via Hellboy Animated (link)

If you haven’t read the very fast interview I did with Tad Stones yesterday, you really need to read it. Like now would be good (I’ll wait).

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Back? Did you catch the bit about Turok, Son of Stone? The Animation Guild (TAG) official blog has a quick quip about Turok as well.

Another project in the building is Turoc, Son of Stone, a property that’s seen service as a Gold Key comic and video game. Well, it’s now boing to be a 70-minute DVD produced for Classic Media being supervised by animation veteran Tad Stones.

Cool, a full on feature. With what Marvel and DC are doing with their direct to DVD animated features, I have a feeling more companies will jump on board with their characters as well. If Tad does to Turok, what he did with Hellboy, I think we will all be very very happy campers.

via TAG Blog (link)

Hellboy Animated just one of many projects

Major Spoilers had a moment to catch up with the ever busy Tad Stones, producer for the upcoming Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron. In the rush, there was only time for a few quick questions that range from Tad’s past to future projects.

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While I have no problem writing Best Of and Top Ten lists, this is my first year coming up with a Best Of list for comics, and it has been a real challenge. First there is the whole “thousands of titles out there” deal, then there is the fact that these kinds of lists are a touchy subject to write. What may be on my Best Of list, is on the @$$ List for someone else. Regardless, it’s time to look back over the year and see what was tops when it came to comics.

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The trailer for Blood and Iron has been made available, and it looks pretty cool.

Here is the official description of the feature:

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I’ve been rather lax in getting all of you wonderful marvelous readers updates on the next installment of the Hellboy animated movie, Blood and Iron. Tad Stones has been super busy locking the picture and doing ADR (Audio Dialogue Replacement), but had a chance to update his blog with news on the upcoming flick.

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Hellboy: Sword of Storms debuts this weekend on the Cartoon Network (check your local listing for times). Stephen Schleicher had a chance to talk with Producer/Director/Writer Tad Stones to discuss Hellboy’s transition to animated features, styles, and future Hellboy animated projects.

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Tad Stones has posted more information about the Hellboy Animated series at his blog site. The picture is going through some final color tweaking before being sent for sound mix. Even though Tad says he pushed to make the animated feature as dark as possilbe, he admits one scene may be too dark.

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Gentle Giant Ltd. will be releasing Bustups of the Hellboy Animated series. These tiny little statues have amazing detail, and for only a couple of bucks (six to be exact) you can own them all. Series One will include: Hellboy in Kimono, Hellboy vs. Batgod, Fighting Hellboy, Lightning and Thunder with Build-a-figure Skeleton. Pieces of the Build-a-figure Skeleton will be included with the other figures.

via Gentle Giant Ltd. (link)

Tad Stones has posted on the Hellboy Animated blog site to let everyone know Hellboy: The Sword of Storms is picture locked (the timing won’t change). Looks like the feature will come in between 75 and 76 minutes by the time it is released on the Cartoon Network in October.

Chris Drake is now scoring music to the exact frame. The guys at Audio Circus are deciding how long the sound of a zombie head exploding should be. Does it last as long as the visual or are the last wisps of zombie dust silent?

Meanwhile, the visuals are tweaked. Shake fx can be added in Final Cut along with blur fx and of course retakes are cut in as they come in.

How long should the sound of an exploding zombie head be? CccooOOoollL. Can’t wait to see this interpretation of Hellboy.

via Hellboy Animated (link)

Tad Stones let spill he and Mike Mignola will be at the 12th Annual Fan Expo in Canada this weekend, and will be showing the opening from the upcoming Sword of Storms Hellboy animated movie.  On Sunday, he and Mignola will answers questions from the fans on the project and possibly more.

Budgets are being formulated and plans discussed for 2007, let’s hope they include more movies! Meanwhile I’m tangled in technical crap about screen resolution, compression, file conversions, eeEEAARGhh! I just want to make the dang movie! So I feel a little like Hellboy here.

If you are going to the Fan Expo and attend the panel, drop me a line and fill me in on all the details.

via Hellboy Animated (link)

The Hellboy Animated blog has some really great images from the upcoming Sword of Stones DVD. Producer Tad Stones has some great insight on the project, including lots of images. Stones says he thinks there could be three or four direct-to-dvd Hellboy movies each year.

I think there’s plenty of room for three or four Hellboy movies a year. The more quality work starts coming out, the better for all of us. Cartoon Network has been a great partner for us on HELLBOY ANIMATED. They are HUGE fans of Hellboy comics and hope these movies really take off for them. But the people we deal with don’t make the overall decisions about what type of programming defines the network so we could be affected by future changes. It would be great to have a secure DVD market, separate from any broadcast or cable entity, where great animation can be aimed at whatever audience is appropriate for the subject matter and storyline.

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