Liz and Myers was originally written for a separate script titled Meat Market, A Love Story. While Broom's death happened early in the comics, Del Toro wished to delay it to have audiences become attached to the character and "make it painful to lose that character." Pre-production Aside from working with Perlman before, Del Toro chose him for the title role because he felt Perlman could deliver subtlety and nuance with makeup. Del Toro assigned his real life friend, Santiago Segura, to play the train driver who assaults Hellboy. David Hyde Pierce was hired to provide the voice for Abe Sapien due to Pierce being a "bigger name" and having a "more recognizable sound". Pierce refused to take credit, perform press tours, or attend the premiere out of respect for Doug Jones. Jeremy Renner said he had been offered the role but turned it down, saying that despite it being "a great director and a great job" he wasn't connected to the material. Early reports had linked Vin Diesel to the role. Filming The film was shot 6 days a week for 130 days, Mondays through Saturdays without a second unit. Sundays were reserved for editing. Del Toro noted that the film could have commenced filming in 1998, however, the film had difficulty finding a committed studio due to the stigma Hollywood associated superhero and comic book films with, at the time. The action scenes were staged after Harryhausen films with little to no camera movement using wide shots. The cemetery sequence was filmed in a real cemetery in Prague. Soundtrack Hellboys film score was composed by Marco Beltrami. Release Theatrical Hellboy had its world premiere at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood, Los Angeles, California on March 30, 2004, and subsequently opened in wide release on April 2, where it grossed USD $23.1 million in 3,028 theaters on its opening weekend. It went on to gross $59.7 million in North America and $40.2 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $99.8 million against a budget of $66 million. Mike Mignola, the original creator of the Hellboy character, has stated that he was "very happy" with the Hellboy films. Some theaters refused to host the film due to the word "hell" being used in the title. Certain theaters in the South retitled the film in publicity materials, and on my heated marquees, as "Helloboy" to