Apr 21 2008NYCC Report: 'Hellboy II: The Golden Army'

Despite suffering what he described as "grotesque weight gain," director Guillermo Del Toro was in attendance at the New York Comic Con to discuss Hellboy II: The Golden Army--and he brought along creator Mike Mignola and stars Ron Pearlman, Selma Blair, and Doug Jones to sit mostly-quietly alongside. From what I can pull from my memory and scrawled notes, here's what happened:

- The entrance of each Hellboy player is received with thunderous applause and a standing ovation, followed by shouts from the back to sit down. Del Toro begins his typically expletive-filled discussion.

- A "sizzle reel"--essentially a trailer with some unfinished effects, meant to spark interest--is shown. It features even more freaks than the last trailer, and hints at a romance between Abe and the priestess and disputes between Hellboy and the ectoplasmic psychic, Johann. Conflict!

- When the lights come back up after the trailer, a batch of the aforementioned freaks are lined up on the stage. One holds a skinless man in a basket; another has a disgusting head with something like a birthday cake perched atop; a mutant wearing a single Victorian-era puffy sleeve holds a fetus emerging from his stomach. All are brilliantly disgusting.

- Del Toro discusses how many freak designs had to be dropped because of time and budget limitations, including a ten-three-headed bulldog licking itself. Mention is made of the dog's "red part," and that he'll post the design online soon.

- Seth MacFarlane is doing the voice of Johann? Apparently so. I guess that's just the most efficient way to ensure Family Guy can easily reference the film.

- Doug Jones, who played Silver Surfer in the last Fantastic Four movie, says he knows no more than the online rumors about a Surfer solo picture. He gesticulates just as much as he did in Pan's Labyrinth.

- Del Toro reveals that he's working on a picture called Saturn and the End of Days about a boy watching the apocalypse happen as he runs errands.

- Selma Blair's glazed expression screams "why the hell did I come here?"

More later!