Candymanis officially a horror hit,nearly doubling its budget at the box officeafter its first two weekends in theaters. That’s certainly good news for directorNia DaCostaand producerJordan Peele, whose names were both front and center in the film’s marketing. But it also could be good news for horror writerClive Barkerand his fanbase.
Barker, of course, was the original creator of the Candyman character, having first written about him in the short story “The Forbidden” way back in the mid-’80s. He then executive produced the original 1992Candymanfilm, which had writer/directorBernard Rosetransplanting Barker’s story from Liverpool to Chicago. WithCandymannow back in the public eye andearning rave reviews, could more Barker properties — some of which have been stuck in development hell for years — find their way to the big or small screen sometime soon? Let’s look at all the various Barker adaptations in various stages of development — including one or two stories without any official adaptation plans that we just want to see for ourselves.
RELATED:Clive Barker Heading Back to ‘Hellraiser,’ Joining David Gordon Green’s New HBO Series
A New ‘Hellraiser’ Movie
If Candyman is a hit with the public again, there’s no reason Pinhead couldn’t be, too. So it shouldn’t come as a shock that the most obvious Barker project is the one that’s already underway. AHellraiserreboot directed byDavid Bruckner, who helmedThe Ritualand this summer’sThe Night House,has reportedly begun shootingin Belgrade, Serbia foran eventual Hulu release. Brucknerhas called it a “small re-imagining"ofThe Hellbound Heart, Barker’s 1986 novella that he himself adapted into the originalHellraiserfilm one year later.Rumors aboundthat Pinhead, a hell priest summoned by a mystical puzzle box, will be played byOdessa A’zionin the new film, a gender swap that makes a lot of sense considering that Barker’s lead Cenobite was a more feminine figure in the original text. It also could help Bruckner’s version of the character stand apart from the iconic version played byDoug Bradleythrough eight films. Expect to see Bruckner’s take onHellraisersometime in 2022.
A New ‘Hellraiser’ TV Show
But wait,Hellraisermight not just be coming back as a movie — there’s also an unconnectedHellraiserTV show in development for HBO withsome heavy-hitter namesbehind it. DirectorDavid Gordon Green, who three years agomade Michael Myers cool again, will be executive producing alongside his usual partners-in-crimeDanny McBrideandJody Hill. Green is also planning to direct several episodes of the series, including the pilot. Writing the show areMark Verheiden, who worked onBattlestar GalacticaandHeroes, andMichael Dougherty, who’s probably still most known by genre fans for writing and directing 2007’s well-regarded horror anthologyTrick ‘r Treat. Best of all, Barker himself is reportedly involved in the HBO series, having beenbrought on boardas an executive producer. After so many years of schlock DTV sequels, it’s a bit strange having two high-profileHellraiserreboots underway at the same time. The question is, with Bruckner’s movie now in production, will HBO continue moving forward with their own hell-raising unabated?
More ‘Books of Blood’ Movies
Candymanisn’t the only recent release adapted from Barker’s works. Just last year, Hulu premieredBooks of Blood, a new anthology film based on the six-book collection of short stories that first made Barker a household name in the horror community. Directed byBrannon Braga,Books of Bloodintertwines direct adaptations of two of Barker’s stories with a third that was more loosely inspired by the author’s writing. Braga, who worked with Barker himself on the film, has indicated thathe’d like to adapt more of the original storiesin future sequels (however, the moviewasn’t terribly well-received). A straight sequel seems unlikely, but there are plenty of tales from the book collection still ripe for adaptation (don’t forget that Candyman himself was originally birthed inBooks of Blood Volume 5).
A ‘Nightbreed’ TV Show
AfterHellraiserandCandyman, the biggest Clive Barker IP out there is likelyNightbreed. Though Barker’s original 1990 film wasbutchered by studio meddling, the monster-laden dark fantasy is still fondly remembered by horror fans who were eager to scoop up thelong-lost director’s cut on blu-ray in 2014. In addition to working on theHellraisershow, Doughertyis currently attachedto a small-screen take onNightbreedas well. With no film reboot to compete against, aNightbreedshow could potentially find a smoother path to our televisions.
‘The Thief of Always’ Movie
Of all of Barker’s full-length novels,The Thief of Alwaysseemed to be the one most destined for adaptation. A family-friendly fable about an 11-year-boy who discovers a mysterious mansion inside which time moves at a vastly increased speed, an adaptation has been in the works at least twice before, includingan animated, musical versionthatKathleen KennedyandFrank Marshallwere going to produce in the 1990s. Barkertold Collider last yearthat a live-action adaptation was set to shoot this year withOliver Parkerdirecting, though there has been no news of the project since. Still, if any of his books are going to get the big-screen adaptation they deserve,The Thief of Alwayscontinues to be the likeliest candidate.
Adaptations of ‘Weaveworld’ and ‘Imajica’
Then, on the other hand, we haveWeaveworldandImajica— two massive, Barker-penned fantasy epics that are weird, wild, and some might say unadaptable (but that hasn’t stopped folks from trying, dammit).Imajicafeatures a large cast of fascinating characters (including the androgynous shapeshifting assassin Pie’oh’pah) and spans multiple worlds, each one more fantastically bizarre than the last.Weaveworldinvolves a race of magical creatures whose entire universe is hidden inside of an antique rug and their battle to protect it. News of efforts to adapt both books, either as a movie or a TV series, have percolated on and off over the years. Themost recent filmmaker attachedtoImajicawasJosh Boone, who was responsible for the 2020 miniseries version ofThe Standand seemed keen to doImajicanext. There hasn’t really been any hard news onWeaveworldsince it was being developed as a TV show by The CW (really!). In that same Collider interview from last year, Barker mentioned that both of them were “coming,” although we have to wonder if he was just being optimistic. Still, withCandymanthriving again, it makes sense to strike while the iron is hot. And unlike Barker’s two still-unfinished literary series,The Books of the ArtandAbarat, at leastImajicaandWeaveworldwould give a filmmaking team a completed story to work with.
A Harry D’Amour TV Show
Okay, I’ll confess, this one is just me spit-balling. As far as I know, there has never been an attempt to take Harry D’Amour, Barker’s hard-boiled detective with a nose for the supernatural, and place him in the center of an ongoing television series. But there definitely should be. D’Amour is one of Barker’s most enduring creations, having appeared in several of his novels and being brought to the screen once before courtesy ofScott Bakulain 1995’sLord of Illusions(the last film Barker has directed himself thus far). It would be so easy to take the character and place him in the center of an ongoing TV series, as D’Amour could face off against a new monstrous and horrifying threat every week (perhaps with seasonal big bads lurking in the background). Such a project would offer up a nice, simplified version of the Barker-verse that could still get as gnarly and outlandish as a production company wanted. What puzzle box do I have to open to make this one happen?
KEEP READING:‘Books of Blood’: Clive Barker & Director Brannon Braga on Bringing Horror to Hulu
