Lionsgate will open 2019 with a superhero film, as the studio’s Summit imprint has dated “Hellboy,” featuring “Stranger Things” star David Harbour in the title role, for Jan. 11.
Summit will also release “Kin,” a sci-fi crime thriller starring “The Disaster Artist” headliner James Franco, on Aug. 31, 2018.
Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin and Mike Richardson are producing “Hellboy,” which also stars Milla Jovovich and Daniel Dae Kim. Ed Skrein was originally cast in Kim’s role as Ben Daimio, who is written as Japanese-American in the comic books the film is based on.
In April, “Hellboy” creator Mike Mignola announced the R-rated reboot of the franchise with Neil Marshall (“The Descent”) as the helmer of the project. Andrew Cosby, Christopher Golden and Mignola are writing the script.
The news came two months after Guillermo del Toro, who directed 2004’s “Hellboy” and 2008’s “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” with Ron Perlman playing the titular character, announced “Hellboy 3” would not happen.
The first “Hellboy” earned a worldwide total of $99 million at the box office and starred Perlman and Selma Blair. Its sequel performed better, earning $160 million worldwide. Although the movies weren’t runaway smash hits, critics loved them, both earning a score in the 80s on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Kin” was directed by Jonathan Baker and Josh Baker and also stars Myles Truitt, Jack Reynor, Zoe Kravitz and Dennis Quaid. Baker and Baker wrote the screenplay along with Daniel Casey.