Back in April, we reported on an upcoming Hellraiser HBO television series coming from genre luminaries like David Gordon Green and Danny McBride (Halloween), Michael Dougherty (Trick r' Treat), Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Galactica), and Roy Lee (It). Conspicuously absent from this list? Clive Barker, the original creator of the mythology that's spawned an iconic horror multimedia franchise. But now, per Deadline, Mr. Barker has been dragged back to Hellraiser, joining the HBO take on the material as a new executive producer.
Barker is happy to join the project and revisit his own grotesque ideas, saying he's "delighted the Hellraiser mythology is seeing a new life. It’s time the stories went back to their roots. I’m eager to bring to a new audience the most powerful and ancient elements of horror: the darkest evil invading our human lives and how we must find in ourselves the power to resist it." We previously reported this new series wouldn't be a reboot or remake of the original film, but instead a continuation of its mythology, including Pinhead and all the other Cenobites unleashed on our plane. Now, it sounds like Barker will infuse this new take on his ongoing story with a refreshing-sounding back-to-basics approach combined with a timely, borderline optimistic "fighting against evil" message. And well? That sounds very, very good and great to me! Perhaps the back-to-basics elements will include more, gnarly practical effects...
Other producers on the project include Ready Player One's Dan Farah, who stated that "Hellraiser started with Clive’s imagination and we couldn’t be more excited to have him on board." He's joined by Jody Hill (Observe and Report), Brandon James (Vice Principals), Eric Gardner (Samurai Jack), Lawrence Kuppin (Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth), David Salzman (MADtv), Marc Toberoff (Fantasy Island), Andrew Farah, and Adam Salzman.
For more on all things raising Hell, here's the intel on a big-screen reboot — which is, weirdly, unrelated to this HBO project.