Posted in: HBO, Preview, TV | Tagged: david gordon green, halloween, HBO, hbo max, hellraiser

Hellraiser: David Gordon Green Offers Update on HBO Series Adapt

It's been close to a year since we last reported on HBO's upcoming series take on Clive Barker's "Hellraiser" universe, when we learned that Barker recaptured the U.S. franchise rights to the work as of December 19, 2021. Since that time, things have been quiet on the series side (while director David Bruckner's (The Night House) film take recently Sense8 star Jamie Clayton as its Pinhead). Now, filmmaker David Gordon Green (Halloween, Halloween Kills) is offering an update on the project and if the film will impact it in any way while doing press for Halloween Kills.

"We've got it over at HBO, and that's not in script form yet, but it's being developed," the director revealed to EW. "It's going to be fascinating because it's a different platform, different concept, different creators, but the same properties," Green said. "I'm not sure where that ends up and how that goes, but I'm very curious. It is a fun cultural experiment, right? To think there's a crew with a concept for a series [and] a crew with a concept for a movie taking the same mythology. I don't know, does it become like 'Deep Impact' and 'Armageddon'?" Green will direct the pilot and additional episodes during the season, with Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Gallactica, Daredevil, Heroes) and Michael Dougherty (X-Men United, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Trick r' Treat) serving as series writers and Verheiden showrunning.

The series is expected to build off the mythology established in the movie franchise as well as from Clive Barker's novella The Hellbound Heart, with Lee and Farah originally packaging the television rights to the series in June 2019 and sending it out to the broadcasters, cable networks, and streaming services. The series is being described as an "elevated continuation" of the already-established "Hellraiser" mythology, which means the creators of the series work off the premise that the Cenobites' past is already known and established. By going with that approach, the upcoming HBO series won't have to spend time at the beginning of its run having to re-establish a  backstory.

Pinhead will be the focus of the series, as will his supporting Cenobites. Called upon via a puzzle box called the Lament Configuration, the once-human demons harvest human would for Hell to maintain a twisted balance between good and evil. First published in November 1986, Barker's The Hellbound Heart would serve as the source material for a number of films under the "Hellraiser" banner including the original 1987 film, the 1988 sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser II, and a slew of other entries in the franchise.

Verheiden and Dougherty will executive produce alongside Dan Farah (Farah Films), Roy Lee (Vertigo Entertainment), Panacea Entertainment's Lawrence Kuppin, David Salzman, Eric Gardner, and Marc Toberoff. Rough House Pictures partners Green, Danny McBride, Jody Hill, and Brandon James will also executive produce, with Farah Films executive Andrew Farah and Adam Salzman co-exec producing.

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