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Acclaimed horror film director, Neil Marshall, 52, turned his hand to the iconic Hellboy series leaving fans eagerly anticipating a horror-themed adaptation. Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk at the premiere of his latest film, The Lair, Neil explained how it all went wrong as the 2019 Hellboy failed to even recover its own production costs.
The award-winning director burst onto the horror scene with 2002’s Dog Soldiers which almost instantly became a cult classic.
Neil then went on to cement his name in the minds of horror fans with iconic films like The Descent, Centurion, Doomsday and Tales of Halloween but then took a nine year hiatus from film directing.
The acclaimed filmmaker turned his hand to TV, with directing credits on Game of Thrones, Constantine, Lost in Space and Westworld.
So when Neil announced his return to film with the notorious Hellboy franchise, fans were elated and had high expectations.
Despite Neil’s directorial stamp and an A-list cast including David Harbour and Mila Jovovich, the film only managed to recapture $44million of its $50million production budget.
While it flopped in sales, the film also failed to capture any audiences, receiving brutal reviews from both fans and critics alike.
The 2019 remake earned Neil a Razzie nomination for Worst Director and landed on Business Insider’s list of 16 Biggest Box-Office Flops of 2019.
So where did it all go so wrong? Neil told Express.co.uk at the January premiere of his latest horror film The Lair in London that he does regret the film but has learned from the experience.
He shared: “At the end of the day it all boils down to the script. Hellboy was the one film I’ve worked on that I didn’t write.
“If the script ain’t good you can’t polish a turd. I’ve learnt from my mistakes, maybe I did it for the wrong reasons.”
Neil explained it was pitched to him as a “horror version of Hellboy” along with the biggest budget he had ever been offered so he jumped at the chance to return to feature films.
However, he noted: “But I wasn’t allowed to do a horror version of Hellboy. I wasn’t allowed to do anything.
“Unbelievable creative interference made it incredibly miserable, and the script was shot.
“Hellboy is something somebody else made and I bear responsibility for it.”
Rather than escaping back to television directing, which he had earned an Emmy nomination for his work on Game of Thrones, Neil endeavoured in the genre that had given him his start in film.
But, there were some new restrictions.
Neil shared: “It was a case of I went from having the biggest budget I ever had on Hellboy but zero creative control to making The Reckoning which was like the lowest budget I’ve ever had but 100 percent creative control.
“Yes it presented problems, yes it was difficult but it was 100 percent satisfying. I came out at the end feeling proud of the movie.
“I’ll own my own mistakes. Whatever people think of The Reckoning, some people like it some people hate it, but I’ll own it because it’s mine.
“Hellboy is not.”
The Reckoning, featuring breakout British horror star Charlotte Kirk, was a smash hit despite being released at the peak of lockdown in August 2020, reinstating Neil as horror film royalty.
The Lair is now available to stream on Shudder.
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