Hellboy II bash highlights Blu-ray goodies

Director del Toro maps out BD features at Universal event

By Danny King -- Video Business, 11/13/2008

NOV. 12 | Hellboy II: The Golden Army director Guillermo del Toro was typically frank when explaining to the audience at the film’s Blu-ray Disc release party this week what consumers of the Universal Studios Home Entertainment title should expect. (See photos from the event.)

“We were recording the process of the creation of the movie in an obsessive, compulsive, sometimes mortifying way in order to provide behind the scenes that is very thorough but also very candid and sometimes shameful to witness,” del Toro told a group of about 200 attendees at a Hollywood, Calif., club Tuesday night.

Universal this week started selling four versions of the $150 million-grossing Hellboy II, including regular and collector’s editions of both standard-definition and Blu-ray discs, and will make del Toro available for a BD Live online chat on Nov. 23. Prices range from $29.98 for a single standard-def disc to $69.98 for the collector’s Blu-ray set, which includes a director’s production journal and a Golden Army statuette.

Hellboy II’s Blu-ray release includes such features as “Scene Explorer,” which lets viewers watch multiple versions of a particular scene from its original renderings to the special effects additions; “Director’s Notebook,” which shows del Toro’s original drawings and how they progressed into the film’s characters; and “Comic Book Builder,” which allows viewers to click on frozen images from the film, drop them into a layout and download them in the form of a digital comic book.

To promote the DVDs, Universal hosted a release party at Hollywood’s Element Nov. 11, which included del Toro showing off the special Blu-ray features and a panel that included cast members Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor and Doug Jones.

“We have a bunch of extras like always. More than you can ask,” said del Toro. “Most people give up after a couple of hours. We keep going like the Energizer Bunny.”

Additionally, del Toro on Nov. 23 will host a live chat with fans who have access to BD Live’s online functions, which Universal is calling the first of its kind. The director said he hoped to have similar chats with fans whenever his films are released.

“We have put a man on the moon, we have our first African-American president, and we decided to break as important ground, so we’re going to have the first-ever BD Live chat,” said the Mexican-born director. “You’ll have to save the Time magazine cover of that one too.”