Age of The Nerd
Clive Barker’s name is synonymous with horror and fantasy. The author splashed onto the scene in the mid-80s with his outstanding short story collection The Books of Blood. Barker soon found himself behind the camera in 1987 and helped spawn a cultural phenomenon with the release of his first film to the big screen Hellraiser which was based on his novella The Hellbound Heart.
Hellraiser revolves around Frank Cotton a man who is lost and searching for the ultimate pleasure. Frank solves a mysterious box and opens a portal to hell. The act of opening the portal releases flesh torn creatures known as Cenobites who tear Frank to pieces. Frank’s brother (Andrew Robinson) and his wife Julia (Claire Higgins) move into the house where Frank’s mutilation took place. When blood is accidentally spilled in the house it brings Frank back from the dead. Frank convinces his one-time lover Julia, that he needs more bodies to become whole again. Julia lures men back to the house where more blood is spilled.
The movie was a cult hit and made the lead Cenobite, which fan’s named Pinhead, a household name. The movie spawned ten sequels, and it seemed that each sequel would lower the Hellraiser franchise into the depths of hell.
And as the years and years go by word news of a Hellraiser reboot has fallen on death’s door. Fans of Barker are so used to nothing happening with many of his announced projects that it has become a joke online. An example of one of these projects is the announcement that Nightbreed, another cult movie directed by Barker released in 1990, would be turned into a TV series for SyFy. The news about Nightbreed came out a couple of years and is still in developmental hell.
But there might be light when it comes to Clive Barker content being seen by the masses. David Gordon Green one of the producers and the director behind the latest Halloween film 2018, has been attached to direst the Hellraiser pilot episode for a just-announced TV series for HBO. Green has had much success with HBO with many of his producing credits for series include Eastbound and Down, Vice Principals, and The Righteous Gemstones. Gordon is set to direct a few of the early episodes.
The silver lining in all this is that the series will be written by people that love the genre Michael Dougherty ( Trick r’ Treat, Godzilla: King of the Monster’s, X-men United) and also Mark Verheiden( Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Daredevil). Michael Dougherty is a huge fan of the Hellraiser mythos and will hopefully do the series justice.
According to sources the producers had the right package and brought the idea to HBO last June. HBO is trying hard to compete with Netflix and hopefully, this will be a prime example of there attempt. Only time will tell how this plays out, but hopefully, we will see Pinhead and the Cenobites very soon.
This TV series has nothing to do with the recent movie announcement from Spyglass about Hellraiser.
