Director David Gordon Green (Halloween Kills) commented on having two Hellraiser projects being developed by different teams at the same time. Green is set to direct the pilot episode of a Hellraiser series produced for HBO, while there’s also a new Hellraiser feature directed by David Bruckner (The Ritual) heading to Hulu.
Although the two projects are unrelated adaptations of Clive Barker’s original novel, The Hellbound Heart, Green is not concerned about the competition. In fact, during an interview for Entertainment Weekly, the director says he’s actually excited to see how this “fun cultural experiment” develops. In Gordon Green’s words, “It’s going to be fascinating because it’s a different platform, different concept, different creators, but the same properties. I’m not sure where that ends up and how that goes, but I’m very curious.”
Gordon Green also said he expects the two projects to become very different things. As Green puts it, “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?”
Besides commenting on the oddity of having the same property explored by two different companies, Green also offered some news about the series adaptation by saying that “we’ve got it over at HBO, and that’s not in script form yet, but it’s being developed.” The Hellraiser series is being written by Michael Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat, Krampus) and Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Galactica), and is produced by franchise creator Barker.
Barker is also the producer of Bruckner’s film project, which just recently wrapped production. The new Hellraiser film will star Sense 8’s Jamie Clayton as Pinhead, the Hell Priest that leads the Cenobites, extra-dimensional beings that exist in a realm of pleasure and pain — yep, Hellraiser is a franchise that is as horny as it’s bloody. Clayton will be the first woman to play Pinhead, a part that already belonged to Doug Bradley, Stephan Smith Collins, Fred Tatasciore, and Paul T. Taylor.
Other confirmed cast members of Hulu’s Hellraiser film include Odessa A’zion (Grand Army), Brandon Flynn (Ratched), Goran Visnjic (The Boys), Drew Starkey (Outer Banks), Adam Faison (Into the Dark), Aoife Hinds (Normal People) and Hiam Abbass (Blade Runner 2049). Bruckner directs from a script by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski. The duo also penned Bruckner’s last movie, The Night House.
Bruckner’s Hellraiser is expected to hit Hulu in 2022. There’s still no release date for HBO’s Hellraiser series.