Chiklis v. Ron Perlman cage match coming for Thing role (the loser gets to play Paste Pot Pete)

Rating: Null/10 (1 May 2004)

WARNING! POSSIBLE MINOR SPOILER! Ron Perlman stars as Mike Mignola's comic book hero: a demon adopted when young by a paranormal investigator, who grows up to become a paranormal crimefighter and investigator. And it's slam dunk casting in this Guillermo Del Toro film, that suffers, ever so slightly, from choppy editing and unnecessarily loose threads (i.e., demon eggs are left hatching in a New York City sewer, but later turn up whole in Russia???). Karel Roden (the favorite vaguely European baddy from last year's "Bulletproof Monk" and del Toro's previous, "Blade II") plays Grigori Rasputin (yes, that Rasputin), who holds keys to Hellboy's true identity. Selma Blair supports well as Liz, the disturbed and romantically conflicted pyrokinetic (at least in the movie incarnation), Jeffrey Tambor is the FBI boss struggling to understand his brood of strange characters, David Hyde Pierce voices merman/sensitive Abe Sapien and John Hurt shows up, in heavy make-up, as Hellboy's adoptive pop. As wild and woolly visually, as well as on a character level, as any Jack Kirby comic (particularly his early 70's "The Demon"). And here's a question: why hasn't Ron Perlman been cast as the Thing in the Fantastic Four movie yetÂ…? Do I see a Michael Chiklis/ Ron Perlman cage match coming? The loser gets to play Paste Pot Pete!