The Official Clive Barker Resource : Revelations

...aka The Egyptian Project, this is the story of the ancient Egyptian cult of Sythis discovered by an explorer which, through its influence over his baby son, attempts to impose its power on the Western world. This was to be no 'unstoppable Mummy chases hero through the desert' movie - more of a warning to those who have taken to sitting inside pyramids. Pyramidic symbols abound - with a building reminiscent of that decorated with the Lament Configuration in Hellraiser IV, where a tentacled monster with some slinky movements is thrown into the Barker melting-pot with a bisexual baddy. Lately resurrected as a straight remake (without Barker involvement and after drafts by a cast of thousands including Mick Garris and George Romero - but with Gods and Monsters' Brendan Fraser), Universal have their 1932 version of The Mummy finally updated as a "non-horror" film - and as the studio's third biggest US opening ever...

Rick tries to get up when Katherine appears, bare-breasted, but he's literally mummified from the neck down.
Katherine puts her lips agaiinst Marietta's breast-bone. Marietta shudders, and sweats.

'I am the first earth child of Sythis..' she says.

The thread-thin tentacles appear from around her lower belly, and caress Katherine's face as she falls to her knees in front of Marietta.
Rick starts to yell in horror, and we stay on his face as the shadows of Katherine and Marietta's mating play over his features.

'We will spread now like a new nation...' Marietta says. '... the end of the human species has begun...'

Pape steps into view, and starts to bandage up Rick's face, stuffing his mouth with dirt first. Our hero has become the Mummy.

Treatment - Clive Barker's The Mummy by Clive Barker, 1990

"All we're taking is the title, it will not resemble at all any mummy movie you've ever seen before. Mummys are not terribly interesting, but the idea of a mummy, something that's ancient and belongs to a civilisation and a culture that still remains largely mysterious to us, is. It will be a deeply perverse and dark movie. If anybody thought I'd given up my extreme pathological and psychotic moviemaking after 'Hellraiser', they had better think again. I'm going to the limits of the MPAA."
Flesh and Fury
By Mark Salisbury, Fear, No 22, October 1990

"It's not a remake of 'The Mummy', that's the first thing. It's a movie that only vaguely resembles 'The Mummy' in the sense that it's got Egyptian imagery in it...We're calling it 'The Egyptian Project', which is very far from being a mummy movie, and it will get made hopefully sometime next year."
Clive Barker Interview
By Jon Gregory, Hellraiser, No 1, Winter 1990

"It's not a remake, but what I prefer to call a reconfiguration of the 1932 Universal version of The Mummy. Mick Garris and I have just completed a first draft screenplay of it…The grue element is regretably more in the hands of the MPAA than myself. We'll have to see what we can get away with. But I'm really pleased to get the chance to do a Mummy movie. I think that the menace of the Mummy was never really exploited. The thing that always drew me to the Mummy idea was not so much the guy in bandages wandering around, though that has got its entertainment value. It's the idea of this incredibly ancient culture with its pantheon of gods and goddesses who are utterly strange to our present day vision being loosed on the world."
Clive Barker's Letter From America
By Allan Bryce, The Dark Side, No 10, July 1991

"If all goes to plan we'll be shooting late this summer [1991]. It doesn't relate to any previous Mummy movie. All we're taking is the title and the idea that something ancient, which belongs to a religious system which remains to a large extent a mystery to us in the Christian world, is unleashed. It's a scary idea. Nightbreed was a deliberate intermingling of fantasy and horror; The Mummy will be undiluted horror. I'm already praying to the gods that the ground under the building where the MPAA has its offices will open up and swallow them before I show them this movie. They're not going to like it one bit."
Hall of Fame
By Philip Nutman, Fangoria, No 100, March 1991

"The Mummy is going into another draft [August 1991] because Mick Garris, who was writing it with me, is making Sleepwalkers. So we're checking on other writers to come in on The Mummy."
Boundless Imajination
By WC Stroby, (i) Fangoria, No 109, January 1992 (ii) Horror Zone, No1, August 1992 {Note : interview took place in August 1991}

"The problem with 'The Mummy' is that you have to reinvent it, just as Cronenberg reinvented 'The Fly'. It doesn't pay just to re-make it, and we found some neat solutions, but they may be a little radical."
Barker Looks Back
By Anthony C Ferrante, Bloody Best of Fangoria, No 12, September 1993

"Eventually I'll be doing The Mummy. It's in its second draft right now with Mick Garris. But Mick took time off from The Mummy to direct 'Sleepwalkers'. The Mummy has kind of taken a back seat for a while since Mick has been directing 'Sleepwalkers' but we're still going to 'resurrect' that project."
An Interview With Clive Barker
By Robert Errera, Hecate's Cauldron, Vol 1, Issue 3, 1992 (note - interview took place 4th January 1992)

"Mick Garris and I did a script, but it was a little too weird for Universal. One of the problems is that, unlike vampires or the Frankenstein monster, the mummy is one of the least likely characters to scare you. So our version only used the mummy as the starting place for something else, which was very grim."
Hellraiser
By Jay Stevenson, (i) Imagi-Movies, Vol 1, No 2, Winter 1993/94 (ii) By Joe Fordham, Cinefantastique, Vol.31 No 6, June 1999

"Looking back, our version of The Mummy was precisely what the Powers-That-Were at Universal did not want. It made the Mummy story over for the late twentieth century, not in terms of its effects (this was before CGI brought its dubious gifts to the process of horror film-making) but in terms of content. We had one particular narrative hook that we were very proud of. In the first scene a strange boy-child is born, under circumstances (high howling winds and a ferocious thunderstorm) that suggest something unnatural is afoot. The narrative then jumps twenty years or so, and we pick up the story of how sacred Egyptian artifacts are being brought to America for an exhibition that would put the Tutankhamen exhibit to shame. An uncommonly beautiful woman is threaded into the action, a seducer and a murderer of mysterious origin. Of the boy-child (now presumably grown to adulthood) we get no sight. Meanwhile our anti-heroine is seducing her way through the male members of the cast, only to be revealed in the Third Act, as the boy-child, now turned (thanks to surgery and hormones) into a woman.
"We loved the idea. So much so that we put the mystery surrounding this ambiguous creature and her extraordinary secret at the heart of our story. Our creation was not welcomed at Universal, needless to say. The script, which Mick had laboured hard over (working in a diminutive hotel room in London, which I visited daily for story conferences), was eviscerated by the script readers and our producers. How could we expect to get away with something so weird? Nobody in America, we were told, would accept such a ridiculous premise.
"A few years later Miramax made a huge hit out of a little movie called The Crying Game, which if you remember, had a girl who was a few inches more than a girl, and got naked to prove it. I sent the receipts of The Crying Game over to the folks who’d rejected our perverted (their word) version of the Mummy every week. I doubt they saw the irony.
"But there was great fun to be had back then simply tossing these ideas back and forth with Mick. His cinematic knowledge and recall is truly impressive, so he was always able to warn me when we were treading on cliché, so we could avoid it. Of course it was cliché they had wanted all along, and if we’d only had the good sense to deliver it we probably would have got the picture made."
Mick Garris: A Very Un-Hollywood Type
By Clive Barker, World Horror Convention Book, 7-10 April 2005

Peter Atkins : "How about a Hellraiser movie set partly in Ancient Egypt in which it is revealed that the very first Cenobite was an overly-curious Pharaoh? And how about the fun we could have had when his mummified remains are dug up in the 1990s and brought to an American museum and some clown, in the process of making a diorama display of the discovered treasures, realigns the objects found in the tomb into a certain pyramidic pattern. A pattern that predated the Lament Configuration as a means of access from this reality to that other we all know and love? That was Clive's first take on an idea for the sequel.
"I liked it. Chris Figg liked it. But, despite it being his idea, Clive decided that he didn't like it. Or rather, he didn't like it as the basis for a Hellraiser movie. My guess is he saw the potential for a whole new Barkerian mythology in there and wanted to keep it clean. There was much talk in the genre press a couple of years later about something called The Egyptian Project, a working title for a movie Clive was developing with Mick Garris for Universal Pictures. I never read Mick's screenplay so I don't know if it has anything in common with those earlier ideas of Clive's but I'm sure you Barker-completists out there will be happy to learn about that particular strand of potential cross-fertilisation between his works."
Building The Beast (In Stages) : The Long Making of Hell On Earth
By Peter Atkins, written in 1993 and presented here at Revelations as an exclusive presentation with our thanks to Pete.

Mick Garris : "It won't be the next movie Clive directs, Eden USA will be - in fact, I may be directing The Mummy. It depends; Universal wants to see Sleepwalkers first.
"The Mummy is probably one of the most shocking horror scripts that's ever been developed by a major studio; it goes far beyond what Sleepwalkers does in a horror/sexual manner. It is contemporary, mostly set in Beverly Hills, and it has nothing to do with any Mummy before this, or Anne Rice's book either. The Mummy is [really grim and dark and sexy], but it's also a lot of fun and very erotic - it has every kind of sexual coupling you can imagine, and a few you can't, I hope."
Putting Sleepwalkers Through Their Paces
By Bill Warren, Fangoria, No 112, May 1992

Jim Jacks : "Our first attempt [at producing The Mummy] was with Clive Barker, with whom we'd developed a couple of screenplays. Clive did very much the 'Hellraiser Mummy' - contemporary, very dark, very weird sexually and horrific. Very original - you'd never seen anything like this before."
The Curse Of The Lost Mummies
By Bill Warren, Fangoria, No 183, June 1999

Mick Garris : "The mummy itself is a suspended-animation creature from long ago and far away, with alien protectors that come to life. It is housed in a brand-new museum built in the heart of Beverly Hills. The grand opening night ceremony is greeted with the meltdown, eruption and release of these creatures from beyond our planet.
"There was a mummy that was actually wrapped about what was underneath - a rather arachnid-like, intelligent creature. I thought at the time that I could not imagine a major studio doing this kind of movie - and I was right."
The Curse Of The Lost Mummies
By Bill Warren, Fangoria, No 183, June 1999

Mick Garris : "Originally [1990/91], Universal was very high on making 'Clive Barker's The Mummy', so Clive came up with a brief outline which he was going to direct. I wrote a very bizarre and twisted script based on Clive's very bizarre and twisted treatment; we both were really excited about it. Most of the story took place in Beverly Hills, in the land of tummy tucks and face lifts, but it was set in a museum with a large Egyptology department. They brought an entire tomb and rebuilt it as it was originally in Egypt, recreated entirely within this Beverly Hills museum. It was almost like 'Chariots of the Mummies'; in other words, the ancient Egyptians were inspired by and involved with alien intelligences from thousands of years before.
"George [Romero's new 1994 ] version was close to going, so Alphaville came to me to do a rewrite and direct. I did two or three drafts that I was really excited about, and the studio had virtually green-lit... What Clive and I had done was something entirely out of the imagination. This next version really combined the Karloff and the Lon Chaney, Jr. movies in that we had both Imhotep and Kharis. It was a romance...I would love to have made it a period movie in that Art Deco explosion of the 20's and 30's which was inspired by the King Tut discoveries in 1922, but the budget would not allow that."
The Mummy : Development Hell
By Joe Fordham, Cinefantastique, Vol.31 No 6, June 1999

Jim Jacks : "Barker's version was very bloody and exotic, tied in with ancient religions. It was intended to be a low-budget franchise like Hellraiser. It never got off the ground."
Unwrapping The Mummy
By Michael Fleming, Movieline, May 1999

Todd Case : "The final lecture to take place [at the L.A. Weekend of Horrors convention, June 1994] was that of Clive Barker. This lecture would turn out to be the highlight of the weekend... Someone asked Clive, 'Whatever happened to The Mummy?' Clive responded by saying that the film contained a scene in which the sensuous female turned out to be a male. Clive felt that this would send true horror through men, due to the fact that the men watching the movie would also be fantasizing about the female, who was actually a man. The producers felt the audience wasn't ready for this kind of horror yet. Shortly after this, The Crying Game was released."
Tear Your Envelope Apart
Coenobium, Issue 12, Summer 1994

Mick Garris : "I had two different lives on The Mummy, that didn't happen. Clive had written a story, an approach of The Mummy, and it took place in Beverly Hills of all places – and then I wrote the screenplay, and he was originally set to direct it. Then they decided not to do it, and then they thought of me directing it, then they decided not to do it. Years later, I came back and wrote an entirely different version of The Mummy, based on one that George Romero was going to do at Universal. We were prepping and ready to go, and then the head of Universal was deposed and given a producing position there, and he decided he wanted to do The Mummy, and then turned it into an $80 million movie – and I was out.
"We were going to make it as a $15 million horror movie – very erotic, very suspenseful and creepy. Well, it was very different from the Clive one – the Clive one was also in that budget area."
An Interview With Mick Garris
By Ken P., IGN Filmforce, 13 January 2003 (note - available online at http://filmforce.ign.com)

"An interesting thing happened with Candyman 2. Bernard [Rose] loves The Midnight Meat Train and he came to me and said 'I want to fold The Midnight Meat Train into Candyman 2' and I thought that could be made to work. He showed me a script which was a wonderful rendering of Midnight Meat Train but didn't have much Candyman in it. I said to him, 'Look, this isn't Candyman. Why force it to be Candyman II when it very clearly doesn't want to be that. Why not just let it be The Midnight Meat Train?' So he is going to make The Midnight Meat Train and we are going to make Candyman II. The Midnight Meat Train grew into a separate film which in fact is exactly right because it was always a separate idea. It momentarily connected with Candyman and then it split off again. I think Bernard did a great job with Candyman and I think he'll do a great job with Midnight Meat Train. I think his judgements are generally good and I am working with him as I did on Candyman so hopefully the new material he will bring to it will marry up well with my concerns. So we will make three movies this year: Hellraiser IV, Candyman II and The Midnight Meat Train...We already have one draft of Midnight Meat Train. Bernard has the notes and he is about to start the second draft."
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
By Michael Brown, Dread, No 11, September 1993

"For a while [Bernard Rose] was talking about doing a version of Midnight Meat Train, but then he decided to go and make a movie of Anna Karenina. From The Midnight Meat Train to Anna Karenina in one bound. He made a movie last year called Immortal Beloved which was about the secret mistress of Beethoven. I think it turned him onto the musical thing; it turned him onto musical classical things and the idea of doing something from another period and so on. So he ended up pursuing Anna Karenina. I don't know how far down the line that project is, but I know that's what he's doing right now."
Confessions
By [Stephen Dressler and Cheryl Bentzen], Lost Souls, Issue 4, [July] 1996

...Another of the Books of Blood to have been smiled upon for quite some time before alternatives conspired to place it firmly on (in?) the back-burner. This one was due to be directed by Mick Garris for Warner Bros from his own adapted screenplay until it was first delayed by a Hollywood writers' strike then finally derailed as moods changed at the studio. At one stage, Gale Anne Hurd had been on board, reworking elements of the second draft, and a $10-12 million budget had been assigned...

"I'm talking to John Carpenter about doing In The Flesh."
Clive Barker Interview
By [ ], The Dark Side, No 1, October 1990

"In The Flesh is in its third draft at Warner Bros."
Barker Bites Back
By Anthony Timpone, (i) Fangoria Horror Spectacular, No 1, 1990 (ii) Fangoria : Masters of the Dark

Mick Garris : "We've added to the protagonist's story, the Cleveland Smith character. He now has a life and relationship outside the prison sequences - he was accidentally responsible for his wife's death - which is why he's incarcerated. Smith's also now a much more sympathetic character than he was when Clive wrote him. Billy Tait, the tale's diabolist, is now in search of his father's spirit rather than that of his grandfather, which brings the story much closer to home. Basically, the dream city is a more finite place for obvious reasons, but this is still one of the weirdest scripts I've written for a major studio."
The Sleeper Wakes
By Philip Nutman, Fear, No 17, May 1990

Mick Garris : "In The Flesh is really grim and dark and sexy."
Putting Sleepwalkers Through Their Paces
By Bill Warren, Fangoria, No 112, May 1992

Mick Garris : "We were going to do In the Flesh together as well, over at Warner Brothers. I had written the script for that, and that's something that every few years a possibility of it pops up again, but I don't know that that will ever happen. I assume it won't, if history is a key."
An Interview With Mick Garris
By Ken P., IGN Filmforce, 13 January 2003 (note - available online at http://filmforce.ign.com)

Vincent Perreira : "Pig Blood Blues is set in one location with a limited cast, and could be done for just a few million dollars tops. It's really my attempt to do a truly 'indie' horror movie, one which will approach not just the horror, but also sexuality from a very European standpoint, something I doubt I'd be allowed to do with a bigger project. Although it's based on an existing story, the project feels very 'personal' to me, much like 'A Better Place' was, whereas 'Autograph' was always meant to be more 'fun'."
I'm Concentrating On Pig Blood Becuase It's Smaller Than Autograph
Posted by Vincent Perreira at www.film-411.com, 28 January, 2004

Vincent Perreira : "I was going to make a 'serious' gay-themed horror film based on Clive Barker's Pig Blood Blues as my next project, but alas it doesn't look like it's gonna happen.
"The upshot is I'm going to take all the material I created on my own for my PBB script (and I did create a ton of original material to flesh it out) and construct an entirely new story around it, so all is not lost."
I Was Going To Make A 'Serious' Gay-Themed Horror Film...
Posted by Vincent Perreira at www.mhvf.net, 2/3 July, 2004

...A feature film based around three stories in The Books of Blood - Dread, Human Remains and Pig Blood Blues. Bill Condon was attached to direct a wrap-around segment (The Book Of Blood and On Jerusalem Street) while three first-time gay directors had been given the reins to adapt and direct the three tales: Keith Clark worked on Dread, Jack Morrissey on Pig Blood Blues and Christopher Landon on Human Remains, taking over from Adam Cook who had worked on an early draft. The project was pitched as a gay art-house, horror movie, never intended to appear in your local multiplex.
Christopher Landon has been heard muttering darkly about Clive's drift away from being associated with outright horror and the project itself has fallen by the wayside - the final result being the loss of what had the makings of a truly hard-edged adaptation...

INT. ROOM - NIGHT

The woman steps up to Henry and scrutinises his densely tattooed skin. He opens his mouth to speak, his engraved tongue barely able to form the words.
HENRY : Come to see if the rumors are true?
HOMELESS WOMAN : I know they are.
She turns to Josh.
HOMELESS WOMAN : Let's get started. We'll need some small pieces of linen. And that case.
She points to the small metal lens case.
JOSH : What for?
The woman draws a small knife from her pocket. Henry's eyes warm to the sight of the blade.
HENRY : For my skin. That's what you want, isn't it?
HOMELESS WOMAN : It's their testament now.
HENRY : Be quick then.
The woman's hand trembles as she places the knife against Henry's chest. She slices off several thin layers of skin, careful to carve along the edges of each particular story.
Josh rips Henry's shirt into small squares. The woman hands the skins to Josh, who folds each one in cloth.
The woman is about to cut into Henry's flank when one of the dead steps forward. A YOUNG MAN, 18 at most, his hollow, troubled eyes suggesting that his life ended in a particularly cruel manner.
JOSH : Wait.
Josh stands and moves over to the young man.
JOSH : He wants his story to be told. He wants to be sure....
The old woman shifts her position on Henry's body, making room for Josh to kneel and read the symbols.
JOSH : Stephen Grace.
The woman flays a section of Henry's back.
JOSH : "There is no delight the equal of dread. As long as it's someone else's."
As Josh recites, the words become visible on a white page.

By Keith Clark, Bill Condon, Christopher Landon & Jack Morrissey - October 1999, revised draft

"I see this film as being the first in a franchise of Books of Blood films. Movies that will re-define horror cinema the way the original books re-defined horror literature. Ground breaking in their intensity, revolutionary in their marriage of frank sexuality and horror."
Clive Barker's Books Of Blood
Seraphim Films press release, October 1999

"Those are written, actually. Bill Condon has written one of them and it's tremendous. That will be, in terms of scale, a much more modestly sized picture. I'm looking at something which is much more the size of Gods and Monsters. That way, feeling as though we can really, because the budget will be very modest, that way feeling as though we can really keep the creative controls. You know the Books of Blood were perhaps noteworthy when they came out because they pushed the envelope a little bit. And I want to make sure the movie adaptations do the thing. Hellraiser did that. It's harder, I think now, to push the envelope where horror material is concerned than ever before. I don't think we're seeing a lot of material, horror movies now that really do push the envelope."
Interview: Clive Barker
By Spence D, IGN Movies, 16 December 1999

"There are tremendous scripts, interest from people who want to fund it; there is some disagreement about how strong the material can be. One of the things we initially wanted to do was be faithful to the flavor of the books, which are pretty damn intense... The people who've shown interest in the movie now want to tone it down, and that's before it's even made. Obviously, that's not a good start."
The Dark Backward
By Philip Nutman, Fangoria, No 200, March 2001

Bill Condon : "If there's any model, it's the original Hellraiser. It's to make a movie that is just as taboo and upsetting as that film.
"We thought of it not only as an opportunity for young directors to make their first feature film, but also... what would be interesting next time would be to work with three women. Women have so rarely filmed horror, so to see three women's take on some of these stories would be great."
Of Gods And Monsters
By Douglas E. Winter, Clive Barker: The Dark Fantastic, 2001 (Note: interview undertaken in 1999 or 2000)

Tom Joad : "On the written page, this one provides the goods missing from many a Hollywood release...
"All three stories are tied together, given reason and motivated by a fourth story which has been added, fully explaining the back story of the Books Of Blood, that is as compelling as it is original, and very satisfying. Reading this [script] has been a pleasure. Believe me, if you like horror films with attitude that make you jump, fill you with terror, keep you twisting on the edge of your seat AND spit blood in your face, you will not be disappointed. Everything that needs to be is here."
Books of Blood script review
By Tom Joad, www.aintitcool.com, 1 March 2000

Bill Condon : "I don't really want to produce... although, I take that back. I must say, I am working with these young film-makers on the adaptation of Clive Barker's Books Of Blood and kind of going to make a real low budget art house gay horror movie - a compilation film.
"The idea of promoting other people the way Clive did with me and the way Michael [Laughlin] did with me when he first hired me, I think that kind of mentor system is the way that Hollywood works. People are always wondering, 'How do you get in and how do you get started?' And if you look at... boy, it's hard to think of people who are successful who don't have some patron of some sort or another. Starting with Spielberg and Sheinberg. And then a ton of people with Steven Spielberg. So that part of producing kind of... using whatever influence you might have gained to help people break in... I think is important to do. But the actual job of producing doesn't interest me that much I have to say and none of the other things except for writing and directing."
The Ask Hollywood Interview
By [ ], at www.myvideostore.com, 2000

"[Dread is] moving well, I think - I have high hopes for it. It's a really superb script and it's a story which I always thought lent itself to a cinematic adaptation. It doesn't have a supernatural element to it, of course, which for certain kinds of people in the studios it's a reassuring element. Supernatural horror either works for people in studios or it doesn't; there's no middle ground. People either get it or they don't. Whereas you can sort of say anything in Dread could have happened. The other end of the spectrum would be handing In The Hills, The Cities to somebody in the studios and saying, 'Let's make a movie!' I think every single one of them would say, 'You are kidding - get out of here, you mad homosexual!' "
In Anticipation Of The Deluge: A Moment At The River's Edge
By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 1 and 12 July 2004 (note - full text here)

"Fox also has a horror movie of mine called Dread, from Books of Blood, that the writers have adapted really beautifully, so I believe that’s a high priority."
Clive Barker’s Dark Plans
By Joe Nazzaro, www.fangoria.com, 2 December 2004

Moriarty : "When I haven’t been working with Revolution in the last fifteen months, I’ve been working with Clive Barker’s company, Seraphim Films, and again... I’ve been supported in a way that has not only improved me as a writer, but which has also clarified what I want to do with my career.
"I remember stumbling across the Books Of Blood not long after they were first published in the US, and I was blown away by the elegance of Clive’s transgressive prose. He was the literary equivalent of David Cronenberg, not afraid to shock, but smart enough to know why. Working for him, taking one of his short stories and expanding it to feature length while also working to maintain everything that made it great in the first place, I’ve learned new respect for the art of adaptation, and I’ve also grown more confident about my own voice as a horror filmmaker. I hold very strong views on the importance of this particular genre, and the cultural impact a great horror film can have, and I am very demanding of others when I’m an audience member. Thanks to the incredible demands of trying to please one of horror’s true masters for the last year, I believe that I am now equally demanding of myself."
Moriarty’s Birthday Rumblings!
By 'Moriarty', Ain't It Cool.com, 26 May, 2004

Moriarty : "Keith Clark's script as part of the anthology film was a very faithful adaptation of the story. I admired the script that Condon put together, and the strength of it was that they were very literal translations of the stories from The Books of Blood to the bigscreen.
"It's very different when trying to expand the material to a feature, obviously, and there are things that you always end up doing to the story because you're dealing with a studio. The Condon film was designed to be an NC-17 film that featured extreme violence and some strong gay-themed sexual material, and it would have had to have been totally independent because of the approach.
"I have nothing but respect for the work Clark did."
Dread
By 'Moriarty', Dread Central message boards at www.dreadcentral.com, 25 September, 2004

Supernova : "For those of you holding out hope for Clive Barker’s career to return to the inventive and influential grandness it reached before, don’t count on this film, at least under this current draft, to be the one that does it. If Barker himself approves of this it can only be in an attempt to get his name back out there and to use the internet fame built by Drew 'Moriarty' McWeeny to add some free publicity.
"In short, if you loved the story because you are a true fan of Clive Barker, you will rage over this film version."
There Is No Delight The Equal Of Reviewing Dread
By 'Supernova', The Scorched Planet at www.the-scorched-planet.com, 22 September, 2004

Moriarty : "You hate me. I get it. I'm not about to defend my work to you. There is nothing I will ever say or do that will meet with your approval, and I couldn't possibly care less.
"So far, there's been one person to please. Barker. Mission accomplished. Next up, we have to please a director, and if we sign any of the guys we're talking about, that'll be a kick.
"And when the film comes out, I'm confident we'll please the fans at that point."
Dread
By 'Moriarty', Dread Central message boards at www.dreadcentral.com, 25 September, 2004

Drew McWeeny : "The thing I’ve always responded to about the story is that it’s not supernatural; it’s one of the few short stories from Clive that has none of those overtones. It’s about the shit that we carry inside ourselves, and if Eduardo is going to try and latch an Asian horror vibe with creepy dead girls onto it, that’s his thing. I believe it’s a mistake; we wrote the draft we wanted to. I know it has been two years since Eduardo’s been trying to get his made; he hasn’t found a writer yet, and a big part of that is because the material is so strong that it feels almost sacrilegious to graft something else on top of it."
What’s Up With The Clive Barker Film Dread?
By Matthew Kiernan, Fangoria.com, 13 October 2005 (note - full text online at www.fangoria.com)

...Love and Taboo was a project set up to create an anthology of shorts by gay and lesbian filmakers, each short inspired by music composed by gay and lesbian musicians.
Barker was to Executive Produce as well as directing one of the short segments and overseeing, with Joe Daley of Seraphim and Marc Smolowitz of Turbulent Arts, the production of a wraparound designed to tie the project together.
Initially set to encompass fifteen short pieces, twenty directors were eventually selected to participate in the $3.5 million feature film. In addition to Barker's short segment, among those slated to deliver a "one to ten minute" original short music film were Bill Condon, Bruce Cohen, John Greyson, Eyton Fox, Paris Barclay and Cheryl Dunye.
The project appears to have stalled, with the planned start of principal photography of "early 2000" having come and gone with no word as to progress...
One of the pieces, Donna Choo's 'Bus Story', was later self-financed when Choo realised the Love and Taboo project was unlikely to happen. Made through the generosity of other independent filmmakers and the unpaid crew and cast, Bus Story was shown at The Hawaii International Film Festival in 2003.

Joe Daley : "The point of this movie is not for all of us to get rich. If it happens, great. But it's a labor of love, and we know that."
Victory And Taboo
By [ ], The Advocate, 27 April 1999

Marc Smolowitz : "In each of the short segments, the participating directors have chosen a song or musical work by a 'gay or lesbian composer' from throughout music history and then considered ways of re-interpreting and re-discovering that 'gay or lesbian' composed song. Participating directors have also followed the simple constraint of imagining their segment inside a scenario of Taboo or Forbidden Love. For this omnibus, such love is broadly defined, without limitation or content restriction; and will involve no less than two 'beings' or entities of any kind. The ways in which the song or musical work functions within each segment, either as a device or a mechanism of story have been left up to the filmmakers' creative impulse. That said, these segments are not intended to be music videos. The music will highlight certain dramatic, emotional and visual qualities throughout, as each segment moves in all kinds of exciting and erotic directions, employing diverse musical genres, varying historical periods, and different kinds of 'geographic worlds'...
"Well before production, the producers will work with Barker to deliver a final, written script to participating filmmakers. The script will include the intended presentation order of the 20 segments, including the wraparound, and will serve to demonstrate how the wraparound will unify the omnibus as one feature film presentation. The goal of the final feature presentation is to achieve a seamless, almost interconnected sense among the 20 segments. Therefore, the wraparound, as a device, will actually attempt to render itself invisible as a device. Its structure of presentation shall be more subtle than heavy-handed, more suggestive than narratively engaging.
"Barker's approach to the wraparound will in part, take its cues from ideas and impulses as presented in the 20 selected segments. He envisions the wraparound as a kind of cinematic, connective tissue which will introduce and carry through the taboo story of two non-specific lovers. With each new song and segment, these non-specific lovers will evolve into more familiar and integrated beings, retaining each time more and more of the visual and emotional details related to human, sexual experience. Through well placed special effects and other visual devices, our lovers will literally morph in to the next set of beings, as they move through the changing landscape of the omnibus. From story to story generation to generation, crossing the boundaries of gender, and defying the normal constraints of time and history our lovers will gradually begin to read as accessible and universal figures. As they move through 20 varying segments, their humanity will be brought to the forefront. By the end of 20 segments, they will have experienced the profound sorrows of loss, the joys and ecstasy of reunion, and the taboo pleasures often found only in the realm of forbidden and erotic love."
Turbulent Arts Project Synopsis
By Marc Smolowitz, 1999

Films That Got Away...