Clive Barker opens up about Book of Blood trilogy and the Hellraiser, Candyman and Night Breed remakes

Clive Barker’s latest films, Dread and Book of Blood will be previewed at the next West Coast Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention, April 17-19 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, according to Sci-Fi Wire.

Last year I attended the New York area Weekend of Horrors, and Fangoria Magazine editor Tony Timpone read a letter from Barker to the audience, voicing his disappointment at Lionsgate, for their handling of The Midnight Meat Train film adaptation (the first of the Books of Blood trilogy adaptations). The film was originally slated to get a much larger release than it eventually received. Hopefully Dread and Book of Blood itself will get wider releases.

There is renew interest in Barker’s work, as evidenced by the coming Hellraiser remake, the Books of Blood films, and well as other adaptations on the horizon. Recently Barker stated in an interview:

“In both cases they were people who came to me with titles and said, ‘I want to do this movie'” [referring to director’s John Harrison and Ryuhei Kitamura coming to him about adapting the Books of Blood]

Anthony DiBlasi – who is a producer on the coming Hellraiser remake – directed Dread, the second of the Books of Blood trilogy, which stars Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Evans, Hanne Steen, Laura Donnelly, Jonathan Readwin, Vivian Gray and Carl McCrystal. The original short story is about being forced to realize your worst nightmare.

Below is a promo trailer for Dread, featuring Barker discussing the original story.

Book of Blood – directed by John Harrison – centers on a paranormal expert (Jonas Armstrong) who, while investigating a gruesome slaying, finds a house that is at the intersection of “highways” that transport souls to the afterlife. The film also stars Sophie Ward, Paul Blair, Doug Bradley, Simon Bamford, James Watson, James McAnerney and Romana Abercromby. In addition to the Fangoria preview, Book of Blood will screen at Hamburg Fantasy Filmfest Nights in March.

Below is a teaser trailer for Book of Blood.

According to another Sci-Fi Wire article, the Hellraiser remake – being directed by Frenchman Pascal Laugier (Martyrs) – won’t have Barker involved as a producer or otherwise. The remake hasn’t been shot, and Laugier is still writing the script for the new film, which will have a completely different look and for the Pinhead character.

When asked how he feels about the upcoming, possibly CGI-augmented, remakes of his work (Hellraiser, Candyman and Night Breed), Barker said,

“I am a little bit of a schizophrenic about this, so forgive me if I sound like two different people on this. There’s a part of me that feels that with the new technologies, the way that we had such a modest budget on my Hellraiser movie [that] if we can have five or six times that on the new Hellraiser remake, I think we’ll get an awesome picture out of it.”

Click on the image below, to visit Fangoria, and find out about some proposed conceptual designs for the new Pinhead that were apparently shot down by the new film’s director.