Writer Derek Kolstad opened up about his vision for adapting Hellsing for an upcoming new live-action project with Amazon Studios! Kolstad, who has previously written for projects such as the John Wick franchise and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is now working together with Amazon on a new live-action take of Kouta Hirano’s original manga series. Hellsing first released with Shonen Gahosha’s Young King OURs magazine back in 1997, and has had a couple of animated adaptations but has never quite broken through into the world of live-action entertainment.
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Speaking with ComicBook.com’s Adam Barnhardt, Kolstad explained his approach to bringing the Hellsing franchise to a live-action feature film. According to Kolstad, one of the most important facets of nailing the adaptation is making sure we care about the main character first and foremost so that the rest of the original spirit of Hirano’s original manga release can better fall into place.
Kolstad began with narrowing down his own major focus in this adaptation process, “[I]t just comes down to what I’m reminded of more and more, in regards to the movies you love. Is, do you give a shit? Do you really dig the main character? The reason we go back to watch the movies that we love so much is, yeah, they have cool scenes but it’s that character you like who’s in that cool scene. I fucking love The Raid, one of the best movies ever made. And you think of that hallway scene. Yeah, it’s one of the best Kung Fu sequences in history but you cared about the character too. And that’s why that scene is even better.”
As for how this process attributes to his work with Hellsing, Splinter Cell, and more that he has in the pipeline, “And I think with something like Hellsing or what I did with Darker Shade Of Magic or Splinter Cell, or some of these other things I have in the mix in regards to IP, is you respect the world, you emulate it as best you can but then you rip the character out of it and you really respect and don’t change the soul,” Kolstad stated, “And I think by doing so, that is an easier pathway to success.”
What do you think of Kolstad’s approach toward a new version of Hellsing? What would you want to see from a live-action feature film for the franchise? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!
