BY DAVID SERVER | Having stayed up late to type up my interview with Guillermo from the previous night of shooting, the beginning of day 3 was a somewhat groggy one. Of course, it was just a matter of time before my geek-juices kicked back in, and by the time I had reached the set via Hell-Bus, I was more or less awake enough to remember who I was, where I was going, and how friggin' cool all of this stuff still was for me (a feeling that never left over the course of my whole four day visit). I continued through the set, now slightly more familiar with the location and the people who populated it, and headed towards the playback monitors ready to absorb even more Hellboy-ish goodness.

As I arrived, del Toro, Stunt Choreographer Tom Elliott, and the other stunt folk were all gathered around the playback monitors, ogling Todd Bryant's daring train-dodging footage from the night before. We all basked in its glow for a couple minutes, and then it was time to continue shooting. Admittedly, this was a later call time than the previous day, and by 3pm, there was still a pretty relaxed and casual attitude around the set, without anything really substantial going down. A green screen was being set-up in the subway tunnel so that a computer-generated train could be inserted flying by in the background of the Hellboy/Sammael tussle. It still amuses me to no end that the method by which computer wizards are permitted to work their magic all starts with a big ugly neon green sheet. The crew also set up a nifty little whirly device to simulate the light of the passing train cars. Ron arrived on set, red and demonic looking as ever, and prepared to get back into the monster slugfest, but before he began, he jokingly insisted Guillermo inform him what type of subway train was passing in the background, because it was important for his performance. This went on for about a minute or so before Perlman abandoned the joke and commenced filming.

This shot was a continuation of the previous day's rumble between Hellboy and Sammael. Turns out that Sammy, being the clever and devious slobber-demon that he is, takes advantage of Hellboy's missed third punch and slams our hero's head against a pillar, knocking his big red butt to the floor. Not one of Hellboy's finest moments, to be certain. As this shot takes place, the CG train will be passing behind the fight, so Tippett Visual Effects Supervisor Blair Clark was often hovering around providing instructions to the crew about what would be needed to accommodate the effects team later on. Meanwhile, in front of the playback monitors, word was slowly spreading that the mighty special effects God Ray Harryhausen, a favorite of del Toro and any self-respecting monster-movie geek, was getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Everyone received the news with a pleased nod of approval, but none were more pleased than del Toro himself. "Finally!", del Toro declared. This launched a brief discussion about the work of the man/myth/legend, etc.

I got so wrapped up in the conversation that I didn't realize that Sammael almost walked right into me, which is saying a lot 'cause that Sammael suit is difficult to not notice. I was then treated to one of the funnier visuals of the whole trip: del Toro, Hellboy, and Sammael all standing around watching playbacks together. Now, it doesn't *sound* all that funny, but you have to realize that these don't look like actors in prosthetics and costumes (especially from behind, where I was sitting at the time), but just like two big burly demons, sitting in fold-up style chairs, carefully checking the nuances of their respective performances. I half expected Sammael to start bellowing in some demonic tongue that he wasn't doing his best work today, bite off a production assistant's head in frustration, and galumph off back to his trailer a drooling, sobbing mess. But all too soon, I remembered that it in fact *was* a guy in make-up and another guy in a costume (damned reality!), and it was back to business. When Brian 'Sammael' Steele lumbered away from the monitors, he was a good five feet away before we realized a string of his trademark drool was still connected from his gaping Sammael maw to the sleeve of del Toro's t-shirt. Guillermo, a celebrated fan of goop, didn't seem to mind this one bit.

As the next shot was being set up, I had the chance for yet another geeked-out chat with Guillermo, which I always looked forward to with great anticipation. While chatting with del Toro, I was treated to some more interesting new info about the flick, and since I had already typed up and sent in my GdT interview for publication, you're going to get that information here instead. While I was under the impression that the decision had already been made to use Doug Jones' body *and* voice for the part of Abe Sapien, it turns out that decision is still up in the air. "I'm going to give Doug a real shot at it," del Toro informed me, "but if he doesn't pull it off, David Hyde Pierce and Kevin Spacey are still my first choices. But I'm gonna give Doug a real shot at it  he's earned it." This was the first time I had heard Pierce's name attached to the role, and it actually sounds like a really great casting choice, although you can't help but hope Doug can pull it off himself. I also inquired about Hellboy's feet, since it should be noted that while the comic book version of Big Red wears black shorts and has little legs and teeny little feet, movie-style HB wears long leather pants over big sturdy tree-trunk legs, and big solid black boots. I was informed that they tried to give Hellboy his comic book proportions, but it looked really stupid, and so they used a different approach. Del Toro informed me, and this was the first time I had ever heard this, that when Mike Mignola originally designed Hellboy for the comics, he was intended to look like a cross between Frankenstein and a Gorilla. So del Toro's solution to the leg dilemma was to give Hellboy legs in the tradition of Frankenstein, so as to keep with Hellboy's original design forefathers. I was assured, however, that Hellboy does still have his cloven-hooves, and although they will only appear sparingly in the film, great lengths (of the CG persuasion) were being taken to assure that the few times we do see them, they look worthy of our hero. Cool stuff.

Guillermo asked if I wanted to conduct any more interviews, at which point I inquired if any other cast members would be around before I left the following day. No dice, as Selma Blair (aka the pyrokinetic Liz Sherman) was in London at the time, and the rest of the cast were either away or not shooting this week. I had been hoping to do a follow-up interview with Mike Elizalde, the lead Spectral Motion creature effects guy, but assumed he would be too busy working on the shoot to accommodate that. As it turned out, Brian Steele was taking a much-deserved breather in front of a huge air-conditioning tube (poor guy must be burning up in there), so I was able to conduct my interview after all. The full interview was posted last week, so check it out if you missed it. Mike's a great guy, and his team is doing some really amazing work out there, so we Hell-fans owe him a great deal. After a nice quick interview, and yet more insert shots, it was time for the dinner break. I sat down to some pretty tasty grub with Guillermo's assistant, Thomas, and as I was clearing my plate and ready to head back to set, I heard someone mention something about rigging the stunt Hellboy up to a crane. This I've gotta see!

After everyone was back from dinner, I witnessed the much talked about crane stunt. Turns out that, not only does Hellboy get knocked down by Sammael in today's footage, but gets launched across the subway station, through the extras, and into the wall, taking more than his fair share of tiles down along with him! Suh-weet! After much preparation, which included testing the crane, trying the shot without the crane, making sure the extras knew where to run, and so on and so forth, they were finally ready for the shot. The stunt-guy, all mocked up in HB make-up, was ready. The extras were ready. We were all ready. A hush fell over the set. "FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE!" "Aaaaaaaction!" *WHOOOOOSH-BAM!!!* I'm tellin' ya, next summer, you will believe a Hellboy can fly!!! The stunt-HB went sailing across the set, smacked into the wall full force (causing tiles to fly left and right), thudded against the ground, and after 'cut' was called, gave the thumbs up sign to signal that, y'know, he was still alive and all. Even though that wall was rigged to break, it still looked pretty painful. Which makes for a better shot, I guess, so there was much rejoicing amongst the crew. Word on set was that someone (or something) was getting hit by a payphone tomorrow. Can you say 'payback time?'

That was the final shot of the day, but before we all headed home for the night, there was a birthday amongst the crew to be celebrated, which meant more cake for everyone. Lisa, the script supervisor, had her sister on set that day, and apparently she had baked today's cake. While I was still too full from lunch/dinner/whatever to partake of today's pastry treat, it was del Toro's verdict that this cake was superior to yesterday's cake. Have I mentioned how fun the Hellboy set was yet? Anyways, just to provide you with a seriously random trivia tidbit, Lisa's sister also apparently baked the cookies for the 'Hellboy eating cookies' scene. I don't know what that is exactly, or why he's eating cookies (in the comics, the fate of the world has hinged upon whether HB eats pancakes or not, so this could mean anything), but when you see the movie, you'll now know who baked Hellboy those cookies. Don't you feel special now? No? Well, I gave it my best shot. And so, on that strange yet festive note, day 3 came to an end. On my Hell-Bus ride home with del Toro and Navarro, everyone was pretty tired, but it was decided that today had gone much smoother than the previous day's shoot. I hopped out of the car, sadly realizing that I had only one day left in Hell (which is a sad thing in the context of these articles), but trudged on to my hotel room so as to be well rested as possible for my final day with Anung Un Rama and friends...

TOMORROW: DAY 4  New Sets Revealed! The Genesis of a Hellboy One-Liner! Tantalizing Hellboy Sequel Teasers! You won't want to miss...THE SHOCKING GIANT-SIZED CONCLUSION!