Hellraiser Reboot Lands at Hulu

Not to be confused with the TV series that's also in the works, Bloody Disgusting brings word that [...]

By Spencer Perry

Not to be confused with the TV series that's also in the works, Bloody Disgusting brings word that a Hellraiser reboot/reimagining movie from Spyglass Media has been acquired by Hulu. The new film has The Night House director David Bruckner and writers Ben Collins & Luke Piotrowski attached to the project. It's largely unclear at this point what the take on the material will be this time around as there have already been ten Hellraiser movies. Naturally there is also some potential for confusion between how this film connects to the preceding entries and the new TV show, with the answer probably being "no relation."

As readers might recall it was reported in December of last year that author Clive Barker had successfully won a major copyright case, gained the US rights back to his novella "The Hellbound Heart" and the rights to the screenplay for the original Hellraiser movie. You might be wondering how Barker may have won this case while Spyglass is still able to push their new movie forward, and the answer is that Barker won't have the rights back fully until December 19, 2021. On that date, any new version of the material that would be made would need to go through Barker and have his involvement.

Assuming that this new Hellraiser movie begins production and is released before that time though, Spyglass would be well within their rights to leverage their control of the franchise for the remainder of the year. It's also worth noting that Spyglass previously absorbed the film library of Miramax Films, which includes most of the sequels to the 1987 original Hellraiser.

The Hellraiser TV series also remains a go with Halloween director David Gordon Green set to helm the pilot and other episodes in the first season. The series will be written by Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Gallactica, Daredevil, Heroes) and Michael Dougherty (X-Men United, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Trick r' Treat). It's unclear what the time frame is on these projects' release. Barker is also involved in the new TV series, writing ina statement that 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."

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