The original Hellraiser is a horror classic. It turns out though, that original writer and director, Clive Barker, doesn’t have the rights to his novel or film. That all changes now though. According to court papers and THR, the horror titan is getting the rights back. His original novel, The Hellbound Heart and the original film are both coming back to his estate. In the THR article, they explained it all.

Barker has successfully leveraged copyright law to recapture the American rights to the franchise… On Monday, his attorney filed papers in California federal court confirming a settlement with Park Avenue Entertainment, the production company that’s currently enjoying the rights to a film about a woman under the sway of a resurrected former lover.

THR

According to the story, Barker is getting the rights back to Hellraiser on December 19, 2021. That includes the rights to the story and the script to the film. Notice how this doesn’t include any of the sequels that have been made. It’s just for the original film. But any Hellraiser projects after this will require approval from Barker.

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So What About The Hellraiser Show and Movie?

As for the two upcoming Hellraiser projects, one is easy to guess, the other, not so much. The movie is the harder one to tackle. We currently don’t know of any involvement in it from Clive Barker, but I doubt that this case affects that film too much. That film, directed by David Bruckner and written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski, doesn’t have many details out about it.

The upcoming TV show is a different story. David Gordon Green (Halloween Kills) is directing the pilot and several episodes after. Michael Dougherty and Mark Verheiden are writing the show. With that show, Clive Barker is 100% on board and is acting as an executive producer on the show.

So after a bunch of pumped out, craptastic direct-to-video sequels, we’re finally getting a return to quality for the Hellraiser franchise.

So, what do you think of Clive Barker getting back the rights to Hellraiser?

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Source: THR