The Hellraiser franchise has more movies than almost any other franchise in the history of horror, with the majority of them going straight to video. Now, Spyglass Media Group will reboot the entire franchise with a reimagining of the original Hellraiser.
As Deadline reports, screenwriter David S. Goyer, who has a lengthy list of credits including The Dark Knight trilogy and the Blade trilogy, will both produce the movie and write the script. Unlike the last seven chapters of the franchise, this will be a theatrical release with worldwide distribution. Spyglass Chairman and CEO Gary Barber said that he and Clive Barker have known each other for 30 years and Goyer is the perfect person to step in and adapt Hellraiser.
The original Hellraiser movie was released in 1987 and was based on the story The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. It was a unique adaptation because Barker actually wrote and directed the movie based on his story, which was a fairly unusual practice for Hollywood.
Hellraiser starred Doug Bradley as a Cenobite -- an extradimensional being summoned to Earth from Hell to torture people in sadomasochistic manners. Two years later, Hellbound: Hellraiser II saw the only survivor from the first movie return in a sanitarium setting where a doctor tried to use her to open a portal to Hell in the Tony Randel-directed sequel.
After Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth hit theaters in 1992, the rest of the movies went straight to video. In all, there have been 10 movies in the Hellraiser series, with the most recent hitting in 2018 with Hellraiser: Judgment. Clive Barker has tried to work on a remake of the original movie since 2006 but it never materialized. With the new version set to be produced and written by Goyer, the franchise seems set to move on without Barker.
Hellraiser, written and produced by David Goyer, does not have a release date at this time.