An early concept for Hellraiser 4 would have turned Pinhead into a video game villain tormenting gamers. Pinhead became a horror icon following the release of Hellraiser in 1987. The original movie wasn't intended to launch a franchise, but its surprise success saw Hellbound: Hellraiser II quickly put into production. The original ending for the sequel saw Julia becoming the Queen of Hell, as producers felt she would become the main villain of the series. However, actor Claire Higgins' unwillingness to commit to further sequels and audience interest in Doug Bradley's Pinhead saw him become the lynchpin of the series.
Sadly, Hellraiser never quite met the success of rival series like A Nightmare On Elm Street. Following the disappointing performance of 1996's Hellraiser: Bloodline, subsequent entries went direct to video. While Doctor Strange helmer Scott Derrickson's Hellraiser: Inferno - the fifth entry - has some intriguing concepts, the other outings are largely terrible. The ninth movie Hellraiser: Revelation was infamously rushed into production on a tiny budget when the rights holders realized they were going to lose the property, resulting in a dreadful outing that Bradley passed on.
Hellraiser fans are - somewhat ironically - well used to the pain later Hellraiser movie sequels have inflicted. Hellraiser: Bloodline is the last theatrical entry from the series to date, which at least attempted an ambitious prequel/sequel structure and even killed Pinhead in the finale. However, an early pitch for Hellraiser 4 would have seen the franchise move into gaming. During the late '90s, video games were becoming an increasingly popular form of entertainment, though studios struggled to make movies that appealed to gamers. This particular Hellraiser 4 pitch was revealed in the defunct UK horror magazine Shivers (via the Best Movies Never Made podcast), which would have seen Pinhead wreck "sadistic havoc" on gaming consoles.
This Hellraiser 4 would have picked up from the ending of Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth, where a skyscraper with the interior of the puzzle box was built on the site where the Lament Configuration box was buried in cement. This building would have been the headquarters for a Game Boy-style company, though exactly how Pinhead would have accessed the virtual world wasn't revealed. The pitch did mention he would become a Lawnmower Man-style villain, implying a virtual reality element might have come into play.
This Hellraiser 4 was being spearheaded by Trans Atlantic, who produced Hellraiser III. They later handed over the rights to Dimension, which seemingly killed plans for this iteration of the fourth movie. Intriguingly, while filming Hellraiser: Bloodline, Bradley filmed footage as Pinhead for an interactive PC game. Hellraiser: Virtual Hell saw players step into the shoes of a VR company employee who heads into Hell to rescue a friend. Pinhead - who has taken many movie forms - would pop up throughout to taunt players, and while this game may have given a taste of what Pinhead as a video game villain in Hellraiser 4 may have looked like, it was later canceled.