The long-gestating series adaptation of Clive Barker’s horror fantasy film Nightbreed has landed Trick r Treat’s Michael Dougherty as director. Barker revealed that the filmmaker had joined the project in an interview with ComingSoon.net, and Dougherty confirmed his involvement in an email.

Dougherty, who also directed the Christmas horror comedy Krampus and the big-budget sequel Godzilla: King of the Monsters, is currently working on the HBO series adaptation of Barker’s classic Hellraiser franchise as a writer and producer. Hiring him to helm a Nightbreed series seems like a smart choice, especially considering his handling of the dark fantasy elements of Krampus. Barker’s 1990 film, which he adapted from his own novel Cabal, follows a man on the run from both the police and his crazed doctor who takes refuge in a secret city of monsters, where he learns that the creatures of folklore were actually peaceful beings nearly exterminated by fearful humans. He ultimately becomes an undead creature himself and rallies the Nightbreed to fight back against the humans. It’s a whole ass thing (kind of like Star Wars for adult horror fans), and to be quite honest it’ll probably make a solid TV show. According to his ComingSoon interview, Barker is currently hard at work developing the bible of the show’s universe, so it'll still be some time before we start hearing about casting or anything like that.

Barker has a number of projects on the horizon right now, including the highly-anticipated Candyman reboot (which was recently pushed to 2021 due to the pandemic) and the upcoming anthology film Books of Blood, which debuts on Hulu October 7. Click here to check out the latest Books of Blood trailer.