HBO’s Hellraiser series enlists Clive Barker as executive producer

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Based on his novella "The Hellbound Heart," Clive Barker wrote and directed HELLRAISER back in 1987, and subsequent years found the film becoming a franchise with a handful of sequels that couldn't hope to recapture the magic of the original. That said, the HELLRAISER franchise is slated to be resurrected as an HBO series, which definitely has my attention, and Deadline has reported that Clive Barker has joined up as an executive producer. As Barker hasn't had much to do with the franchise for decades, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is a good sign.

The HBO series is set to be written by Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Galactica) and Michael Dougherty (GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS), with Verheiden also serving as showunner. David Gordon Green (HALLOWEEN KILLS) is also onboard to direct the first few episode of the series. In a statement, Clive Barker said he was, "delighted the Hellraiser mythology is seeing a new life. 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." Fellow executive producer Dan Farah added, "Hellraiser started with Clive's imagination and we couldn't be more excited to have him onboard." The Hellraiser series won't be a remake, but rather an "elevated continuation and expansion of the existing Hellraiser mythology" It's expected that the centerpiece of the franchise will still be Pinhead, who is the leader of the Cenobites, a group of hellish demons who subject humans to extreme sadomasochistic experiments after they're called forth by a sinister puzzle box known as the Lament Configuration.