According to Deadline, horror author Clive Barker has signed on as an executive producer on HBO’s upcoming series adaptation of the Hellraiser franchise, which is based on Barker’s horror novella titled The Hellbound Heart. Should the project secure a series order, Halloween director David Gordon Green is set to helm the first episodes.
“Delighted the Hellraiser mythology is seeing a new life,” Barker said in a statement. “It’s time the stories went back to their roots. I’m eager to bring to a new audience the most powerful and ancient elements of horror: the darkest evil invading our human lives and how we must find in ourselves the power to resist it.”
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Producers Dan Farah (Ready Player One) and Roy Lee (It) acquired the TV rights rights to the long-running horror franchise last June and now the plan is to created a continuation and expansion of the previously-established Hellraiser mythology, with Pinhead still remaining the center of the universe alongside the demonic Cenobites while not acting as a remake of the 1987 film that was written and directed by Barker himself.
Hellraiser originally told the story of an unfaithful wife who attempts to assist her dead lover in his escape from hell. Pinhead is the notable villain and one of the movie’s demons called Cenobites. The horror character is summoned using an antique puzzle box.
The series is set to be scripted by genre masterminds Mark Verheiden (Daredevil) and Michael Dougherty (Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Trick ‘r Treat), with David Gordon Green (Halloween) attached to direct the pilot and several other early episodes should it get picked up for a full season.
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Verheiden and Dougherty are set to executive produce the Hellraiser series alongside Farah Films’ Farah, Vertigo Entertainment’s Lee, Lawrence Kuppin and David Salzman, Panacea Entertainment’s Eric Gardner, Rough House Pictures partners Green, Danny McBride, Jody Hill and Brandon James. Farah Films exec Andrew Farah and Adam Salzman are attached as co-executive producers for the series.
Spyglass will finance, develop, and fast track the Hellraiser film reboot from Bruckner for worldwide theatrical distribution. Keith Levine will produce alongside Goyer via the Phantom Four banner. VP of development and production for Spyglass, Chris Stone, will oversee the project.
