You can never keep a good horror franchise down for too long, and there are currently two new Hellraiser projects in the works, one a feature film reboot and the other an HBO series. There’ve been reports that the big screen reinvention for the long-running brand could end up being delayed, though, after creator Clive Barker filed a lawsuit to regain the rights to the source material.
We haven’t heard any further updates for a few months now, but presumably Barker is much more enthusiastic about the HBO series being spearheaded by Halloween duo David Gordon Green and Danny McBride, because he’s signed on as one of the executive producers. Green is also set to direct the first few episodes, while the scripts are currently being hammered out by Battlestar Galactica veteran Mark Verheiden and Godzilla: King of the Monsters director Michael Dougherty.
Plot details are still firmly under wraps, but HBO’s Hellraiser appears to be much further along the development process than the movie reboot hailing from David Bruckner. That project has been virtually radio silent for months now, apart from franchise regular and Hellraiser: Judgment‘s Gary J. Tunnicliffe voicing his unhappiness that he wasn’t asked to contribute in any shape or form.
With the creative team for HBO’s Hellraiser series now starting to take shape, though, the next stage will inevitably be the casting process. Whoever stars as Pinhead will have some pretty big shoes to fill stepping in for Doug Bradley, but Gordon Green and McBride were happy to bring back the original Michael Myers for Halloween, so it can’t be ruled out that the 66 year-old franchise stalwart could be invited to return to the makeup chair.