Clive Barker To Write HELLRAISER Remake

Dimension Films has decided to remake the original 1987 Hellraiser movie in the hopes of restarting the franchise. Horror legend Clive Barker who transformed his critically acclaimed novella ‘The Hellbound Heart’ into his 1987 directorial debut will reportedly write the script for a Hellraiser remake. Actually, Barker himself took to Facebook to drop this news:

A few weeks ago I had a very productive meeting with Bob Weinstein of Dimension Pictures,in the course of which I pitched a remake of the first HELLRAISER film. The idea of my coming back to the original film and telling the story with a fresh intensity-honoring the structure and the designs from the first incarnation but hopefully creating an even darker and richer film-was attractive to Dimension. Today I have officially been invited to write the script based upon that pitch.

Barker also notes that the best make-up in the world loses force if not inhabited by a first-rate actor so condition of the deal was that the one and only Doug Bradley return as Pinhead. Therefore, practical effects will be utilized as much as possible, as he claims Weinstein agreed to his wish for a low-pixel count movie:

Well, it will not be a film awash with CGI. I remain as passionate about the power of practical make-up effects as I was when I wrote and directed the first HELLRAISER.

But, the ink’s not dry, and this could all fall apart as project has been in development since 2006 and Bradley isn’t signed just yet. The original novella was more intense and sexually perverse than even the original film and it seems the franchise is ready to return to its creepy, demented, S&M-y roots. If nothing else, Fifty Shades of Grey might get some kind of competition in the sadomasochistic stakes.