Caffeinated Clint
Author Clive Barker tells Fangoria that he’s keen to buy back the rights to both the "Hellraiser" and "Candyman" films.
Barker’s production company, Seraphim Films, would like to bring the characters back home again – then, they could get the sequels back on track, the site reports.
So what’s next for the horror penner?
The Thief of Always
"The interesting thing," Barker says, "is that in the 10 years that I’ve been developing THIEF OF ALWAYS, the technology has caught up with the way to do it now, so we can really make all the seasons arrive in one day. We can watch an entire environment turn into Halloween-time in a heartbeat. We can see an entire house come to life, which would have been much harder to do 10 years ago, so in many ways, it’s all to the good. It may have taken a while, but we got there.
Dread
"Fox also has a horror movie of mine called DREAD, from BOOKS OF BLOOD, that the writers have adapted really beautifully, so I believe that’s a high priority. The BOOKS OF BLOOD movies that I’m making with our company, Midnight Picture Show, are a high priority too. We’ll probably end up signing the contract soon, and hopefully we’ll be making movies by the early part of next year, so that will be two BOOKS OF BLOOD movies a year if all goes well".
The Abarat Quartet
"ABARAT is being adapted by John Harrison [writer/director of the Sci Fi Channel’s DUNE] for Disney, although we haven’t decided on a director yet," Barker reveals. "What I did right from the beginning was say to Disney, ‘Look, I’m creating these books, and there’s a lot of my life and energy in it. Come to me if I can be useful, but otherwise I’ll just be writing the books and painting.’ So they haven’t come to me, which I don’t mind, because I like and trust John a great deal. There’s a high likelihood that ABARAT will get going at some point, simply because I think fantasy is where people’s heads are right now."
The History of the Devil
"We have a deal—and now we’re getting cooler here—to do THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL as a six-hour miniseries. That’s a play of mine, in which the devil is taken to trial for his sins against humankind, demanding that he be released to go back to heaven. It’s really about the history of evil, which is an interesting subject." (Go here for comments on this Sci Fi project from scripter Peter Filardi, who tackled another literary horror giant with this year’s ’SALEM’S LOT miniseries.) "There’s also another miniseries, which is WEAVEWORLD for Showtime, and it’s quite close to liftoff," Barker says. "It’s taken 10 years, but a fellow called Bob Greenblatt has come in at Showtime and he’s a really smart guy who likes the project, so I have high hopes that that’s going to happen."
Tortured Souls
"I left a good hot one for last: I just turned in the screenplay for TORTURED SOULS to Universal. They are reading it right now, and if they like it, hopefully I will direct that myself next year." Based on the wildly popular toy line created for McFarlane Toys, TORTURED SOULS is the first project that Barker is willing to absent himself from other works for several months in order to direct. "That’s absolutely right," he says, "but there’s also something to be said for being released from the day-to-day rhythm of writing in the morning and afternoon, having a workout and then going to paint, which is practically my seven-day regime. I don’t think it hurts to break that rhythm for a year to make a movie. I want to make a horror movie; I want to make a scary movie; I’ve never lost my interest in that. And TORTURED SOULS is a damn good story, so we’ll see what Universal thinks".
Finally, anything happening with the rumoured "Nightbreed : Directors Cut"?
"Well, it goes on and on and on," he says, "because Fox has 25 minutes that were taken out of the movie, and they’re somewhere in some huge warehouse that probably looks like the final shot of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. They have promised me over and over again that they will do a special edition and I can put the 25 minutes in and so on, but they’ve never done anything about it.
"The answer is, I have two pictures at Fox right now. My hope is, as my relationship warms up with Fox and we start to get closer to making either DREAD or THE THIEF OF ALWAYS, I’ll be able to sidle up to one of the presidents or vice presidents and say, ‘You know, I’d really love just to have the keys to your warehouse!’ And then I’ll go tiptoe in, because I’d really love to restore that material, and there’s plenty of it. There are a bunch of monsters missing, and there was wonderful work in it. There’s a lot of stuff I would like to put back, so the answer is, it’s never gone from my head as something to do. It hasn’t really worked to simply send letters to Fox, or even have my agents ask questions. What I need to do is to actually actively be making a movie with them, and then I’ll be close enough for them to consider my appeal a little more. I would certainly love to get it going again, and I’d love to find those missing minutes."
