MSZ: It’s amazing how much care you put into these things.
GDT: As you are making a movie, the easiest thing to forget is that it’s going to be viewed at a different speed. Like, the thing that you’ve labored on for months, which you’ve designed and constructed, is in the movie for two seconds. But sometimes an understanding develops, like with Star Wars. For a generation of kids, it takes Greedo nothing but a few minutes to live, enter, and die. Or my favorite creature, Hammerhead. He’s in one shot.
People talk about fantasy movies, and they say, “Well, this movie of yours was not loved by the critics,” or “It didn’t make money.” And I go, “It doesn’t matter.” It doesn’t matter. I assure you, there will be an eight-year-old kid in Milan, or Peru, or Mexico, who cherishes it as his favorite movie in the world because he saw it at age eight. Our generation worships movies that were critically savaged when they came out, and we enthrone people from Lucio Fulci to Mario Bava who were critically not well received or regarded at all.
MSZ: As you said, this appreciation all stems from love. Because, when you’re talking about Hammerhead, that was Ron Cobb who designed him. When he was drawing political cartoons, where he didn’t have to do it that well, he would really put thought and effort into it because he loved it. And George Lucas saw his illustrations and said, “Okay, I want to work with him.” I think there are kindred spirits within the arts—both behind the scenes and in the audience. The moment you connect, you just get it instantly.
GDT: Yes, there’s an imprint.
Del Toro’s early idea for King Balor’s royal guards gave them owl-like helmets. This idea was developed by Francisco Ruiz Velasco but eventually discarded in favor of the “butcher” design seen in the final film. (TOP) Del Toro, like many other filmmakers before him obsessed with their creatures, has a deep affection for his monsters.
NOTEBOOK 4, PAGE 23B
GREEN LIQUID. GIANT
That your girlfriend left you, that bombs fell in Iraq, with a door in his/her/ my chest.
–Robby Scott: Miniature UK builder.
–Exploding tooth fairies for DDT
–DRAIN the miniature
–Fairies: EAT, POOP, REPRODUCE.
–Lordimar’s “r’s” have not been very good for PL. Unexpected. Painful.
–Neither loneliness nor love knows any bounds. Pain and pleasure are fleeting but intense.
–Judging a movie after only one viewing seems strange to me. The conscious mind absorbs every image, which took hours of work to create, in a matter of seconds. But if the image is powerful, if it speaks to the viewer’s soul in some deep way, then those few seconds are enough for love to take shape. Image transcends dramaturgy. Dramaturgy is Demagogy in the cinema
Jaw made of bone
IMPERIAL OWL GUARD.
–Human hair
The prince’s and princess’s clothes have a slightly oriental look to them. Chinese-style spear w/ shaft
WINK’S BOX.
Polished acrylic glass lens. 3 inches
Painted prosthesis with nylon over the foam
J’s helmet needs to be sculpted small so that the character doesn’t have a “BIG HEAD”—shoulder pads
Johan’s helmet HB II
–Why do we look for peace in consensus? Is there any peace to be found in the approval of others that doesn’t leave us feeling more helpless? Anything that is new either unsettles or seduces, a flautist nobody wants to pay.
The initial concept for the massive grinding machine in the Troll Market.
–Video Feed in the truck—
–“Heavy, heavy load” Tadpole V.
–Reverse the dialogue in a pair of scenes. Give Liz dialogue and share the “FOCUS”—H.B. and Johann.
Water Kick USE the CHI
–The water and the fire flow freely. They’re not any one type and they’re shapeless
Wink hits Abe.
–Wink uses the magic/hand to “bring” H.B. and Abe to him and then push them.
–Little bits of glass are scattered when Wink crushes him. They’re scattered around his head like little pieces of TEXAray.
–Corkscrew turn around the same shot and break a 3-D patch on the Butcher Guard??
–I will kill everyone in this room.
Abe Sapien
and then lifts him off the ground, smacks him against the floor, the column, and the wall.
–Bolero in Wink’s hand.
“Abe vs Wink”
Vent.
If possible, the smoke should come out here.
Angle to hide his head. —
Black metal. Blue steel type
Design of Liz’s necklace
Johann
–I LOVE YOU SQUIRREL, you and my GIRLS.
The idea of putting steel around columns is for the Troll Market, because we found this abandoned quarry, and that’s where we shot the Troll Market. I didn’t like how flat the columns were, so I said, “Let’s put iron clamps around them and have the iron bleed outside so that they look a little more textural.”
Then you see the final proportions of the helmet of Johann. We came up with the idea of a funnel so that the actor would have a little more leeway. Still, it was a killer. The first or second day, John Alexander, the actor, wore it; we removed the helmet, and it was like a crown of thorns. He had punctures with blood. He said, “I cannot wear it like this anymore.” We had to create some padding. And we had to hire a second actor because John could only wear it for so long.
Then, in the middle of the page, Wink is hitting Abe. I never filmed this particular moment. We tried to do it but couldn’t. It was going to be a big fight between Abe and Wink, but part of our budgeting process was losing it. So Abe never fought, really. We had Wink putting his hand on top of Abe’s head, when he says, “I’ll take care of this,” and then he goes, “Oh, dear,” and we cut.
Some of del Toro’s notebook pages include a critical mass of near-final designs. This page features strong concepts for Mr. Wink [Brian Steele], Johann’s helmet [John Alexander], and Liz’s necklace [Selma Blair, with Ron Perlman as Hellboy].
NOTEBOOK 4, PAGE 25A
(1) Closed
[?] the opening
(2) Open
The [?] below is the jaw
Contains eggs or a cocoon
The plates on its shoulders open.
They open like an egg toy.
–For the moment, as of today, we’re 99% in Rot.com with 73 positives and 1 negative, what joy for P.L.
–If Abe realizes that Liz is pregnant before even she does, then it would create a situation a little earlier