How They Pulled Off The Giant Fight In Hellboy

FIRST THINGS FIRST: You’re not having a comic-book movie in 2019 without the help of computer-aided visual effects, especially not one in which a government-sponsored demon spars with three 22-foot-tall giants.

- Jacqueline Detwiler

FIRST THINGS FIRST: You’re not having a comic-book movie in 2019 without the help of computer-aided visual effects, especially not one in which a government-sponsored demon spars with three 22-foot-tall giants. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean stunt performers, riggers, and coordinators are out of work. For the new Lionsgate reboot of Hellboy, out April 12, key stunt rigger François Coetzer and his company, Blackrat Stunts, thought it might be fun to create a movable rig that actor David Harbour and stunt double Ivailo Dimitrov (both playing Hellboy) could interact with instead of trying to air-fight an invisible giant in front of a blue screen. “Believe it or not, it started out as a little stunt-rigging hobby project,” Coetzer says. By the end, they’d built a 22-foot interactive apparatus that could be puppeteered by six stunt riggers, and the visual-effects team called to say, Hey, thanks for making our job easier.