‘Hellraiser’ TV Series Brings Creator Clive Barker On Board As Executive Producer
TheHellraiserTV series is bringing back a familiar face, and I don’t mean Pinhead.Clive Barker, the originalHellraiserfilmmaker and creator, is now on board as an executive producer for the HBOHellraiserTV series being directed byDavid Gordon Green(Halloween). And it sounds like Barker will have actual involvement with the project and not just an honorary producer credit.
Okay, let me tell you an inside secret about executive producers: sometimes they don’t do anything. To be clear, a lot of executive producers are hands-on with films or TV shows, often bringing in money for a project and taking part in development. But then there are honorary executive producers. These are folks whoreallydon’t have much to do with the movie or film their name is attached to. Instead, they might have had some association with the material at one point, and are being given credit (and a paycheck) as payback.
Or, as screenwriterJohn Augustputs it:
Many TV shows have multiple executive producers, and without knowing the specific situation, it’s hard to say what the individual people do. For instance, a TV show derived from a movie (like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), may bring with it Executive Producers from the original film, who have little direct involvement with the show.
With that in mind, whenever a famous name gets bandied about as an “executive producer,” I tend to be a little skeptical because there’s a good chance that said person isn’t really working on the project at hand. But in the case of Clive Barker joining theHellraisershow, it certainly sounds like Barker will at least havesomeinput into the material.
Per Deadline, Barker is now part of the executive producer team on theHellraisershow, with Barker saying he is “delighted theHellraisermythology 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.”
The early episodes of the show will be directed by David Gordon Green, director ofHalloween, and the upcomingHalloween Kills, whileMark Verheiden(Battlestar Galactica) andMichael Dougherty(Trick r' Treat) serving as writers, and Verheiden running the show. As for what the show is about – all we know is that it’s “planned as an elevated continuation of the existingHellraisermythology,” whatever that means!
In the originalHellraiser, a puzzle-box opened up a gateway to a hellish dimension (letter clarified to just be Hell itself in the sequel) full of monstrous S&M freaks known as Cenobites.
