Milla Jovovich is in final negotiations to join the Lionsgate reboot of “Hellboy” as the main villain, TheWrap has learned.
The blockbuster is expected to start production in September. Jovovich is familiar to sci-fi audiences having been the headliner for the “Resident Evil” franchise, “The Fifth Element,” and “Ultraviolet.”
The new film stars “Stranger Things” star David Harbour as the title character, a demonic superhero first played by Ron Perlman in Guillermo del Toro’s 2004 original movie and its sequel, 2008’s “Hellboy II: The Golden Army.”
In April, “Hellboy” creator Mike Mignola announced the R-rated reboot of the franchise with Marshall (“The Descent”) as the director of the project. Andrew Cosby, Christopher Golden and Mignola are writing the script.
The news came two months after del Toro announced “Hellboy 3” would not happen.
Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin and Mike Richardson are producing.
In a recent interview with TheWrap, Harbour described the reboot as “darker” and “more of a character piece.”
“It’s a character that I love, and sort of in the way, I think Mike [Mignola] and a bunch of other people saw me in ‘Stranger Things’ and wanted me to play Hellboy and I think he has some parallels to him,” Harbour said.
“He’s another complicated antihero who is not strictly good or bad, he’s just trying to do the right thing. I think he’s a demon, he’s crazy, and he’s also sweet and vulnerable and neurotic […] so there’s a lot of complexity there.”
The first “Hellboy” earned a worldwide total of $99 million at the box office. The sequel performed better, earning $160 million worldwide. Although the films weren’t runaway smash hits, critics loved them, both earning a score in the 80s on Rotten Tomatoes.
Jovovich is repped by CAA and Untitled.