Clive Barker turned in his Hellraiser remake script years ago

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Dimension Films has spent a long time developing a remake of the 1987 horror classic HELLRAISER, so much time that occasionally they're in danger of losing the rights to the franchise because it's been too long since they made a movie in the series. So that's when the company knocks out a low budget sequel real quick, like HELLRAISER: REVELATIONS in 2011 and the upcoming HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT. The rights secured by the production of those films, they can then turn back to the remake.

Filmmakers who have been involved with the remake over the years include MARTYRS' Pascal Laugier, the DRIVE ANGRY team of Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer, and HELLRAISER creator Clive Barker.

Barker was the screenwriter attached when we last heard a solid update on the project, back on Halloween of 2014. At that time, he revealed to Entertainment Weekly that his "reboot" would begin 

on Devil’s Island. I wanted to fold into the Hellraiser narrative something about the guy—the Frenchman Lemarchand—who made the mysterious box, which raises Pinhead. I figured, ‘Well, what would have happened to him?’ He might well have been taken to Devil’s Island and I thought that would be a pretty cool place to start the movie."

Barker said he had just sent the second draft of his screenplay to Bob Weinstein, the head of Dimension, and was waiting to hear back from him. The writer seemed quite positive about the project and was ready to find out "when we're going to actually make the movie."

We didn't hear anything more about the remake/reboot after that, and just over fifteen months later HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT was in production.

Judging by a tweet Barker made during a Twitter Q&A over the weekend, it sounds like he never heard back from Bob Weinstein after all. I don't think he heard any more HELLRAISER news between that Entertainment Weekly interview and the announcement of HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT than we did. When asked about the status of the remake, Barker said: "The script was written and delivered to Dimension years ago. That was the last anyone heard until news of a sequel surfaced."

A: The script was written and delivered to Dimension years ago. That was the last anyone heard until news of a sequel surfaced. @shudder pic.twitter.com/09iKEtAROl

— Clive Barker (@RealCliveBarker) March 18, 2017

With Barker writing the script and Doug Bradley attached to reprise the role of horror icon Pinhead, which he hasn't done for REVELATIONS or JUDGMENT, that iteration of the remake gave fans reason to be excited about the idea. We can only hope that Dimension will dust off Barker's script whenever the company goes back to developing the project.