It's been suffering in development hell for years, but a Hellraiser movie reboot finally seems to be happening, and here's what we know so far. Hellraiser is long overdue for a return to its former glory. While the first two Hellraiser films are all-time classics, two decades spent wallowing in the land of direct to video sequels have tarnished the brand name quite a bit, removing a lot of the mystique that once surrounded the Clive Barker-created property.
That's not to say that Hellraiser doesn't still boast a large fanbase. The first two movies are still great all these years later, and Pinhead remains an iconic figure in horror history. The franchise just has a lot of question marks surrounding any new developments at this point, as Dimension Films' low-budget, cash-in sequels got so bad that even some of the most ardent Hellraiser fans decided to give up watching each new installment. Can Hellraiser recover from this long period of torment? Horror fans sure hope so.
There's almost limitless potential for creativity when it comes to the world that Barker created, and fittingly, there are now two simultaneous Hellraiser projects in the works, an HBO TV series and a theatrical reboot. Here's what we know about the latter.
Hellraiser Movie Reboot Release Date
The Hellraiser movie reboot - or at least its current incarnation, multiple attempts have been made to return Hellraiser to theaters in the last decade - was officially announced in May 2019 by Spyglass Entertainment. David S. Goyer, writer of The Dark Knight and Man of Steel, is producing and writing the story. Things went quiet after that, until April 2020, when it was announced that David Bruckner (The Signal, V/H/S) is set to direct the film, from a script written by the duo of Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski, who penned Bruckner's latest movie The Night House. Unfortunately, the Hellraiser movie reboot is still early enough along that there's no release date available yet, and thanks to Coronavirus, production might not begin for some time.
Hellraiser Movie Reboot Story Details
At this point, absolutely no story details about Spyglass' Hellraiser movie reboot have been revealed. The Cenobites and their leader Pinhead will of course be involved, but beyond that, it's still anyone's guess. Goyer and company would probably be wise not to try and remake Barker's original novella, The Hellbound Heart, as adaptations of that won't get any better than the one Barker wrote and directed himself. As mentioned previously, the creative possibilities with the Hellraiser world are basically endless.