"While waiting in line for the screening of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, I overhead someone say that Guillermo del Toro's latest is being seen as his audition tape for The Hobbit," observed Jonathan Pacheco in his review for The House Next Door. Of course, Del Toro already had the directing gigs for the two Hobbit films before Hellboy II hit theaters, but that won't stop audiences from evaluating the current parade of fairies, demons and evil elves with Del Toro's Middle-Earth-to-be in mind.
Needless to say, it's a narrow perspective.

It would make more sense to expect that these upcoming features will negotiate between the gothic horror of Pan's Labryinth and the blockbuster approach of Hellboy II. In the latter work, it's clear that Del Toro has more interest in placing these loony supernatural beings in relatively conventional action sequences, allowing the specificity of the characters to create a sense of ingenuity. Pan's Labryinth, on the other hand, offers a single package of storytelling: The art direction, special effects and even the violence directly relate to the drama. The best case scenario for the Hobbit films would be a happy medium: Glorious visuals that reflect Tolkien's deeply involving mythology.

One of the best things about life here on Cinematical is that I receive a crash course in comic books that I'm unfamiliar with. The world of graphic novels and comic books is a pretty daunting one, especially when every other title is being optioned by a big studio.
There are so many of these characters that I've known in passing or via their movie adaptations that I don't even know where to begin reading.

And that's coming from someone who's (somewhat) in the know! I can't imagine how it looks from the outside. I try to imagine these poor souls going into a comic book shop and saying "So, um, which comic was the movie based on?" and getting laughed at. And with Hellboy, that's a lot of people, including yours truly.

That's why I love the guys at ComicMix -- they know their superhero stories, and they're eager to share them. You can go there, quietly print their lists up, and take them to Amazon.com without needing to talk to a single judgmental soul. Now, to coincide with the release of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, they've put together a best of Hellboy list for those unfamiliar with his comic incarnation. And I know after you've seen the movie, you're going to want to pick up Seed of Destruction and The Corpse. They sound like the perfect beach reading to me!

[Thanks to Rick Marshall, who always keeps us in the loop]

Speaking with Cinematical in Los Angeles, director and writer Guillermo del Toro was enthused and excited to talk about the challenges and triumphs of his latest film. "The biggest challenge (for Hellboy II: The Golden Army) was to say "Let's remain loose and interested and happy and crazier and more free in the second movie. ... And the second-biggest challenge was to make a 200-million dollar movie with 85 (million). ..." Del Toro also spoke about the film's mix of slapstick and the supernatural, the pleasures and pitfalls of practical effects and what he'd say to someone concerned that his upcoming task of directing The Hobbit would mean too much time spent away from him crafting his own unique visions for the big screen. (Warning: Brief snippets of foul language included within.)

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C'mon, fess up. When you were watching Tony Stark construct his first Iron Man outfit in a desert cave, were you thinking: "Gee, I have some spare metal parts in my garage. Maybe I could make me one of those." Following that same impulse, Wired.com recently asked readers to submit their creations and has now posted the results, which you can check out over there.

Obviously, I'm not as knowledgeable about superheroes as some of our other writers and many of you reading this, but as I looked over the collection, my interest turned to incredulity. I mean: "Used Electronics Man"? "Captain Carpetfoam"? "Super David"? "Aquitards" (pictured)? Other than that last picture, Wired.com readers appear to have an aversion to spandex and leotards, which seem to be the building blocks for any good superhero costume

I would guess that our own Geek Beat columnist Elisabeth Rappe could whip up a better superhero costume with one hand tied behind her back. I was much more impressed by the Alamo Drafthouse Iron Man costume contest a couple of months ago. People in Austin evidently have a much greater grasp of their superheroes and/or have much more time on their hands. It's not a question of geography, though, it's a question of passion.

What do you think? Do you like the "winners" picked by Wired.com? Have you seen better fan-made (true) superhero costumes?

Last we saw, in May, Hellboy was punching the earth in the Hellboy II: The Golden Army one-sheet. Now we've got two sweet clips -- one you can see over at Latino Review, and the other came out during The Late Late Show, which you can see above (just over a minute-and-a-half).

See the clip above, that introduces Johann Kraus (Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane), and then check out the even better clip at LR, which has the guy critiquing Hellboy and his anger issues -- something he probably shouldn't do when all that's keeping his ectoplasmic spirit complete is a suit topped with a glass forehead of sorts. But Johann, he gets his own sweet and clever revenge.

Luckily, after clips like this, we won't have to wait eons to see it -- the Guillermo del Toro-helmed, Ron Perlman-starring flick hits theaters in two weeks, on July 11.

[via SuperHeroHype]

In a little over a week from now, Iron Man crashes into theaters -- signaling the official start of the summer movie season. I know we say this every year, but come September, we could be looking back at one of the greatest summer movie seasons in history -- with popular franchises like Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Batman, Hellboy and The Chronicles of Narnia returning to the big screen. We're eagerly anticipating the arrival of new superheroes like Iron Man and Hancock, there's another adorable Pixar movie, an equally-as-adorable stoner flick from Judd Apatow and the revival of a very funny '60s television show on the big screen. What's not to love?

So in the spirit of sharing our love (or lust, depending on the lighting) for all things movie-related, we at Cinematical present our 10 most anticipated films of summer 2008. Our writers got together, looked things over, and, after sending the information through a magical robot (who talks like a black Robert Downey Jr.!), here's what we came up with. Click on any of the 10 photos below to get started ... and feel free to enjoy all the goodies we have on the other end. (Just leave the bag of Twizzlers for me, please).

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Lots of people say that it isn't easy buying gifts for people, but I have to disagree. Unless you have almost zero contact with a person, it's easy to just keep a few mental notes about their likes and find a gift that's at least moderately suitable. But with the advent of the Internet and a sweet little service called eBay, it became ridiculously easy to put in less effort and get even better gifts -- especially for the rabid movie geek. The site is a veritable smorgasbord of movie memorabilia. Remember a few key words from past conversations, and you can come up with tongue-twisting gifting greatness -- memorable movie memorabilia.

Yeah, some of it is beyond ridiculously-priced. I'm still bummed that I couldn't buy a few Buffy auction pieces a few years ago when the show ended, but not all of it is made for Mr. or Ms. Moneybags. There's also funky Buy it Now stuff, and little trinkets from films that never come close to the dreaded 4-figures. What follows is a list of current auction goodies that could make you the best Santa ever. Some are always available, others are rare, funky finds, and all of it is something that'd be special and unique. And remember -- be a smart bidder.

Detergent Container from Superbad - Auction Ends 12/19

Who knows how pricey this item will get when it hits its end date on December 19, but as I'm writing this on Saturday morning, it's current $10.50. Sure, that price is guaranteed to go up, but it's still a heck of a cheap price for a highly-recognizable prop from this summer's best comedy. Team this puppy with a picture of Jonah Hill running with the detergent containers and the prop's certificate of authenticity, and you'll become a gift-giving God to any fan of Judd Apatow, Hill, and all that is Superbad.

Lately it seems that everyone loves a bloodsucker. Variety reports that David Goyer has signed to direct the adaptation of the graphic novel, Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire. Phew, that title certainly is a mouthful. Baltimore was written by Hellboy creator, Mike Mignola (and finally after what seemed like an eternity to Hellboy fans; we are getting our sequel, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, this summer) and Christopher Golden. It looked like Goyer was going to take a break from comic books for a while when he was attached to The Invisible Man this summer, but it seems he just can't stay away.

The story centers on one Lord Henry Baltimore, turned into a vampire on the battlefields of Europe during WWII. The curse eventually causes the death of his loved ones and he assembles a team to hunt down and destroy evil. Both Golden and Mignola will be on hand to write the script for the big-screen version. This will be the third adaptation deal for Golden, according to Variety, who has some previous experience in scripting the undead after writing dialogue for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds video game back in 2003.

Regency Pictures brokered the deal for the adaptation as part of their new strategy to make films that will appeal "to a young male demographic" -- is there any other kind lately? Some of Regency's other titles this year will be the Virgin Comics title Virulents, directed by John Moore, and an action thriller titled The Darkest Hour. Goyer is set to start work on Magneto as soon as budgets and locations have been finalized (if you can't wait for 2008 though, there are always the spoilers that Chris reported on earlier this month). So, I'm guessing that production on Baltimore will probably be a long time coming.

If you're a DVD junkie like me, then you'll end up buying a new Special Platinum Holographic Limited Master Ultra Five Disc Edition of a DVD you already own, just to get some paltry extras, like interviews with the gaffer. I'll admit, it's a sickness, and once Blu-ray and HD-DVD were introduced, it got that much worse for me.

Likewise, if you're a hardcore DVDer, then you probably visit DVD news sites like The Digital Bits and DVD File for the latest news about anything DVD related, no more how trivial, and no matter how much Peter Jackson continues to hammer you over the head with new versions of The Lord of the Rings DVDs.

To that end, our first early morning early morning panel was the DVD Sneak Peeks for 2007. Bill Hunt and Todd Doogan from Bits introduced Charles de Lauzirika, who works on a lot of Ridley Scott's DVD releases ... he has the lucky distinction of working on the Blade Runner: The Final Cut DVD, Javier Soto, who works with Guillermo del Toro, and Robert Meyer Burnett, who directed Free Enterprise and is working on the DVD releases of Shoot 'Em Up and Valkyrie.

After his Oscar-nominated Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro is about as hot as a director can get. He's on a short list of filmmakers who is as good with character as he is with visuals and effects, and I'd imagine that combination has Hollywood knocking his door down. He's currently in pre-production on Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (which Jessica told you will have parallels to Pan's Labyrinth), and hopes to follow that up with 3993, a ghost story set in the 1990s, but with ties to the Spanish Civil War. And it sounds like he'd better clear some more of his schedule -- he's currently in talks to direct an adaptation of Tom Manning's graphic novel Runoff, an eerie tale about a town people can enter but can never leave. (You know, like Hotel California). Manning seems thrilled at the prospect of collaborating with such a visionary, saying "Whenever I am contact with those guys I'm kind of blown away that they are radical enough to try and take Runoff to film."

Runoff is a creator-owned, self-published, three volume comics series, and the third and final volume was just released. Manning says "Guillermo del Toro...basically contacted me a year ago and we started talking about doing this project together. It's been moving along in baby steps ever since, but I think that's the way of Hollywood. We haven't worked out any contractual details yet, so there are quite a few hoops to jump through before we're rolling any film. I'm not sure where this would fit into Guillermo's schedule, I know he's got his fingers in a lot of projects, but I hope Runoff cuts in line once it's a go." This is the first I'd heard of Manning or Runoff -- any fans out there? I did notice Jeffrey Tambor's character in Hellboy is named Tom Manning -- but I'm not sure if that's homage or coincidence. You can purchase all three volumes of Runoff and learn more about Tom Manning and his work at his website: robotsandmonkeys.com.