Posted in: HBO, Preview, TV | Tagged: books, cable, cenobites, clive barker, hellraiser, Lament Configuration, novels, pinhead, series, streaming, television, the hellbound heart, tv

Hellraiser Series Coming to HBO; David Gordon Green Directing Pilot

Published Mon, 27 Apr 2020 15:57:51 -0500

by Ray Flook

Last updated Mon, 27 Apr 2020 16:00:37 -0500

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Ten months after we first reported It producer Roy Lee and Ready Player One producer Dan Farah were looking to bring Pinhead and his fellow Cenobites from Hellraiser to the small screen, HBO has given the project a series development greenlight. Halloween director David Gordon 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. Green, Verheiden, and Dougherty will executive produce alongside Farah (Farah Films), Lee (Vertigo Entertainment), Lawrence Kuppin, David Salzman, and Panacea Entertainment's Eric Gardner. 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 (Deadline Hollywood exclusive reporting).

Pinhead is coming to HBO in a Hellraiser series, courtesy of Spyglass.

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.

Deadline Hollywood (exclusive)

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