"Since I first read C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, I've wanted to
create a fantasy world of my own, filled with characters and creatures
who originated in my waking dreams. A world I could describe in both
oil paint and in words, which would be the setting for a series of
epic adventures. Abarat is that world. My Oz, my Narnia, my Never-land.
I believe we - that is, HarperCollins and myself - will be making books
resembling nothing that has ever been produced before."
HarperCollins To Publish Children's Fantasy Series by Clive Barker
By [ ],
www.writenews.com, 26 April 2000
"This is my Wizard of Oz, my Narnia, this is a world I love to lose
myself in and where I'll spend most of the next nine years working on
these films."
Disney Magics Up Girl Rival to Harry Potter
By John Harlow (Los Angeles),
The Sunday Times, 21 May 2000
"Eventually, it came down to three or four people who really had the
size. Not just the size of funds to buy it, but also the size of
organization to really exploit all the possibilities that it offered...
I wanted this at Disney because they have the mechanism to make it
into something extraordinary. Also, they think visually, and here I
was with a large number of paintings, a lot of design work already
done."
Clive Barker Gives Disney A Nightmarishly Edgy Kid Flick Rep
By Kathleen Tracy,
KidScreen Magazine, May 2001
"It's a quartet of novels I wrote for HarperCollins, and I painted 220
oil paintings, some of them huge, some of them 13 feet across to go
with these books as illustrations. I suppose the closest you could
come to it is the Narnia books. Disney decided they wanted to buy the
world for films, for the theme parks, for TV... In other words where
Disney are going to be, they want Abarat to be.
"It's completely the Holy Grail. It's all that I could have wanted and
it's a way for me to have the creativity that I want. Write the books,
paint the pictures, without being bothered by everyone. And it's
tremendous to think I'm going to walk down Disneyland's Main Street
into Abarat Land in maybe five years time. It sounds pretty cool!
"None of those [other projects] are going to be as important as Abarat.
I want to show that Disney's faith in me is justified. For three years,
Clive Barker is giving himself over to Abarat, and everything that is
associated with Abarat will be part of Barker's purview."
Lord Of Illusions
By [ ],
SFX Magazine, Issue No.65, June 2000
[Peter Schneider's departure from Disney] "is regrettable - he was a
good guy - but there's a lot of good guys there and we've had no bad
experiences there so far, they've been really super, so I'm cautiously
optimistic that it's all going to work out well."
Nips And Tucks, Tits And Fucks
By Phil & Sarah Stokes,
10 July 2001 (note - full text here)
"I've declined to do an art show this year because most of the
paintings are related to Abarat, and although the actual objects
belong to me, nevertheless, Disney is going to keep them in their
vaults until the movie comes out, just because I want to protect them.
Disney has an amazing vaulting system. Disney has been very protective
of their artwork over the years. They are going to protect them and
when the movie comes out I think I am going to exhibit the paintings
around the country and probably sell them at the same time. But my
first priority is not the sale but the exhibition of them. I want to
hold all the paintings together. I don't want to sell them off in bits
and pieces and then find that when we get the movie out there, and all
four Abarat books are delivered, and I want to have a huge exhibition,
that I can't recover all the paintings because they are in private
hands. I prefer to wait and get all the pictures out there at the same
time. And then it's going to be quite an exhibition. I don't know
quite where we are going to do it yet.
"One of the things is obviously we can't exhibit everything, but I
want to put up as many pictures as possible. And we are talking big
pictures. I mean the biggest of them is 13 feet by 9 feet. A lot of
them are 4 feet by 5 feet I mean they're big guys. I want to make sure
this is done properly. And the great thing about Disney is that they
are really enthusiastic about doing this properly. So I think this is
going to be a good marriage of minds."
Confessions
By [Craig Fohr],
Lost Souls Newsletter, September / December 2000 (note - interview
took place 25 August 2000)
"I shall write four novels, as I am contracted to do, which will
constitute the first arc - if this was Star Wars, it would be the first
three movies - and Disney will take from those four books the material
to make three movies. They may also take material to do TV, games,
what have you.
"What they've done is something they've never done before: they've
bought a world from the inside out. They came out and saw a house full
of paintings, and heard me talk about the world and the characters and
the philosophies, and they said, 'We want to exploit this material in
every medium we're in, from theater through parks, through toys,
whatever.' And that was my dream for this material. It's a wonderful
marriage."
The Dark Backward
By Philip Nutman,
Fangoria, No 200, March 2001
"The Disney vision is very particular and they're going to take this
and run with it and I don't know if even they know where that race is
going to end. I know that they want to take the first two books as the
subject of the first movie and I think that makes sense because there
are certain narrative arcs which actually complete themselves within
the first two books so there's a sense of some narrative satisfaction
to be had - you know, a couple of minor villains die. You got to have
a sense of 'Hey, we've got rid of a few of these guys, got to throw
some of these guys to the lions'. So I think they're right to take the
first two books, because I want this movie to be - you know what Peter
Jackson did with the Lord Of The Rings, if it could be that, or even a
part of that, then that would be fantastic…"
Open Roads... What Price Wonderland?
By Phil and Sarah Stokes,
3 April 2002 (note - full text here)
"Yeah [the films will be G-rated]. Not even PG. Well, there - I said
that. But the rules are changing almost daily. We have a new president.
We have all kinds of new attitudes in play. I don't know. Would I be
able to release Hellraiser as an R-rated movie now? I don't think so.
I think we'd probably have to cut it. We have to watch...
"Absolutely [I can envision Abarat games]. And so can Disney. It may
even be that the first thing we do are games. We talked about that."
Barker Worse Than His Bite?
By [ ], www.pcgameplay.co.uk, 19-23 February 2001
"I said [to Disney], 'In one sense, of course, I'm incredibly
possessive, but in another sense, I'm writing the books and there they are
and nobody can take the books away from me. So if you guys want to make the
books blue rather than red and you want to tell a different kind of story
set in my world, I don't have a problem with that. And rightly that's an
enrichment of the world. Anything that anybody does is an enrichment of the
world... Does it bother me? No, go to it.' "
Imagining New Worlds
By Robert Starner, Lambda Book Report, Vol.10, Issue 3, 1 October 2001
"I always have in the back of my mind if somebody was
wanting to make a movie of this I want to make sure that the information is
somewhere in either the text or the illustrations that helps bring this
thing to life. But having made movies myself, I certainly didn't come to
Abarat thinking, 'Gee, I want to make this movie.' In actual fact, part
of me feels as though it's wonderful that Disney is taking on the challenge
of making these movies because it frees me to do what I really want to do,
which is to continue to write Abarat books."
New Children's Book From Author of 'Hellraiser', 'Pinhead'
By Seamus O'Regan, transcript from Canada AM, 26 December 2002
"Showing those pictures [to Disney] at the time was one of the greatest
experiences of my life. What was wonderful was having these folks come
into my house and look at the work. And when they came in through the
door, instantly they got it. Harry Weinstein was extraordinarily
articulate and wonderful. Mr Katzenberg was remarkable. He sat on the
floor with his legs crossed and said, 'Tell me the story.'
"It was really quite an exciting time in my life. I was showing myself
as I really am, not the horror meister they had often invited into
their ranks, but somebody who dreamt with his eyes open. I think they
liked seeing that part of me, and I liked them seeing it."
Abarat
For HarperCollins (US), The Books Of Abarat.com, Fall 2002.
"Ben [Smith] said, 'There is a world here, and people are looking for
worlds; they're looking for places to play. Why don't we talk to the
studios the way you've just talked to me? Keep this very simple, bring
the folks up to the house where all the paintings are, and let's just
do this in a very 'unpitchlike' way.'... It was a fun thing to do; it
was very organic - me just telling the tale...
"I'll be as involved [in Disney's projects] as they want me to be. My
feeling has always been that my first job is to write and paint these
books and to create as many cool characters and fun concepts and
strange geographies [as I can], so that when other talents in other
areas come and look at these worlds, they've got lots to play with. If
I'm invited to help in the developmental processes, I'm absolutely
there to do that - but I don't want to be proprietary about this. I'm
the first to say Abarat will have different lives in different forms,
whether it be television or movies or whatever."
Clive Barker, Author
By Gina McIntyre, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 October 2002
"So, great response [to Abarat Volume 2]. Great response from Disney too, which is fun because then they are now going to go and
pursue the movie. I think they seem very committed to taking what I've written seriously and really taking a crack at reflecting it in
this movie. So I'm going to meet with them in about a month's time and we'll talk about that."
Confessions
By Craig Fohr, Lost Souls, 1 August 2003 (note - full text online at Lost Souls - see links page)
"That man [John Harrison] is writing Abarat, the screenplay, right now, for Disney. And one of the things that made me want to do
the deal with Disney was they said, ‘We really are excited about it and, by the way, we have an island we could give you…’ and I
said, ‘You’re on!’ So we are going to create the theme park at some point – Babilonium – party on, man!...
"My hope, honestly, would be that it’ll be a mingling of the best [of live action and CGI] – I think we’re finding CGI can do more and more, I just don’t want it
to be dominated by CGI"
Barnes and Noble Stage Presentation
By Brein Lopez, LA Festival of Books, 25 April 2004
"John Harrison - the last I heard, I should have the script in my hand the next week or so - so we'll see. I like John immensely and I
have great faith in his loyalty to my vision, because he did the Dune project and he's approached this scale of thinking before and I
think did immensely well with Frank Herbert's world and I have great hopes that he'll do the same with Abarat... He was a Disney
choice, but he was kind of offered up to me a little bit - like, 'What do you think about John Harrison?' and because of the Dune
experience, or Children of Dune, I was like, 'Yeah! Damn right - that's a great idea!'
"He spent several parts of days with me, going around the paintings, talking through not only what was on the walls but also what
I thought was going to happen to these characters as time went by - to cast my imagination forward from the two books that we do,
into whatever the third and the fourth might bring. And I can only do that in a very limited way because of the way I'm working - I
haven't painted those books yet! So I don't know that much, but there are some things I know and I was able to offer him some
insights. And I was certainly able to give him the feel for what excited me about this whole project in the first place - what had brought
me to islands and time and a time out of time and the Fantomaya and all the various elements that plugged into my experiences as a
child going to Tiree and Guernsey - two islands which featured hugely in my childhood imaginings.The whole idea of being able to
jump through time and then go to a place where time doesn't even exist is something that's very acute right now, being in a state of
jet lag! That's the way you feel! You're not plugged into the way the hours work and I made a note to myself two years ago, saying,
'Candy should feel something like jet lag,' and I think that when she gets to move through the islands at a really fast rate (as she'll be
required to do in the third and fourth books) that's got to affect her. I mean, jumping from hour to hour, you're getting very strong
feelings of what each hour will bring, but they're not in the right order! And it's that weird thing of when you have, for some reason,
disturbed sleep, or when you sleep in the middle of the day - you know, when you're really tired and you sleep for a couple of hours in
the middle of the day and you lose two hours, you know? This strange sense of being dislocated - I shared a lot of that stuff with John
and I think he was excited to have whatever I could give him. What Disney said to him, I do not know, I was not party to. Those
conversations were between John and Disney and John didn't choose to share them with me, and that's right and proper. He's a man
who's coming to this with three things in his head: who I am, who his employers are - Disney, and who he is as a writer with his own
imaginings and his own vision and his own version of what this is (probably I put those in reverse order - probably I should put him
first!). He's a very smart, sensitive man and I'm cautiously optimistic that we're going to have something exciting out of this."
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)
"The screenwriter is a man called John Harrison, who I respect enormously and who has been very respectful of my desires where
the book is concerned and he tells me the script is loyal to the books and I'm delighted that's so.
"I don't want to get too close to the creative process. I still have two more Abarat books to write, though not two more to paint
because I'm half way through the paintings for book three. If I start to get involved in the film I'll be drawn back into the material from
books one and two when in fact, as a writer, I should be looking forward. My job is to finish the story I have begun in very a
spectacular fashion."
In A Terrifying World Of His Own
By Laura Davis, icliverpool.co.uk,
September 2004 (note - full text online at www.icliverpool.co.uk)
"Abarat is being adapted by John Harrison for Disney, although we haven’t decided on a director yet. What I did right from the
beginning was say to Disney, ‘Look, I’m creating these books, and there’s a lot of my life and energy in it. Come to me if I can
be useful, but otherwise I’ll just be writing the books and painting.’ So they haven’t come to me, which I don’t mind, because I
like and trust John a great deal. There’s a high likelihood that Abarat will get going at some point, simply because I think fantasy
is where people’s heads are right now."
Clive Barker’s Dark Plans
By Joe Nazzaro, www.fangoria.com, 2 December 2004
"I'm sure that inevitably [Disney] are going to make changes. Turning the first two books into a movie is a huge deal, and so things
will be lost and inevitably changed, so I don't want to get my knickers in a twist about stuff I can do nothing about. What I should
be doing is concentrating on the stuff that I can do something about, which is the next book and the next painting!"
Entering Abarat
By Joe Nazzaro, Starburst, No 318, January 2005
"I've been around movies for a long time, and if I've learned anything, it's that a movie isn't made until it's made, so there
are no certainties.
"I think if we pull this off with live-action, it will be like nothing that anyone has ever done before, and that's a hugely
exciting prospect. The idea of putting Christopher Carrion on the screen - with his nightmares sinuously moving around his neck -
or having a conversation between John Mischief and his brothers... It's a very complicated piece of work, but on the other hand, if
it comes off, man, it could be amazing!
"The first movie will contain material primarily from Books One and Two, which makes sense, because there's a big arc in them,
which is taking a newly empowered Candy back to the town where she was a victim of her father's cruelty. So she goes back to
Chickentown and liberates the chickens, and then returns to Abarat, having freed herself of the shackles of Chickentown and
knowing who she really is. Candy is ready to take her place, although she has no idea what place it will be, or what the cost will
be, in the life and history of Abarat. So I believe the first two books will work very well as a single movie. Book Three, Absolute
Midnight, will be the second movie, and Book Four, which is the mega-book, will be the third film in the trilogy."
Days Of Magic
By Joe Nazzaro, Fantasy Worlds, No 5, February 2005
"Abarat, the script (what hopefully is the final script) will be turned in to Disney, though not to us, in a week's time...
"I have not seen a single word... I sort of am [deliberately avoiding it], actually. I feel as though, 'Let Disney do what they need to
do with it and then show it to me,' I think it's hard for people like John Harrison, who is a very, very smart and very respectful
man, respectful of the books and of me and I am equally respectful of him. I don't want to be another voice wittering in his ear.
I am perfectly sure that there are a dozen script advisers and note-takers and note-takers to the note-takers at Disney who are
already doing that. I prefer to wait until the script has found some kind of equilibrium and hopefully John is at a place where he
wants to show it to me and when he wants to show it to me, I will happily read it and we'll see, we'll see."
The Hellbound Art : Memory, Fantasy And Filigree
By Phil and Sarah Stokes,
10 February 2005 (note - full text here)
"John Harrison, who wrote the screenplay of 'Abarat' has just turned his screenplay over to Disney. I’m gonna be meeting
with Disney in about three of four weeks time to show them the new paintings. I have a hundred of new Abarat paintings they
last here in the house. So I want to show the staff of Disney the pictures and talk about how my ideas of the third and fourth
book have developed by making these paintings. So we are moving slowly – it’s a slow process with all these large movies
because there’s a lot of money involved. And obviously we have to get the screenplays completely right. But what has been
nice for Disney is that they have been able to see 'Abarat' go back on to the bestseller list here in America twice - three
times the last month."
Clive Barker On The Phone
By [Thomas Hemmerich], That's Clive!, 29 March 2005 (note - full text online at
www.clivebarker.de)
"Abarat is at present with Disney – I don’t know whether it will stay with Disney, honestly. Disney’s in flux a little bit, you may have heard they
have changes of mouse and so it’s hard to predict. All I know is I’m writing the third book, painting the set of paintings for the third book – there
are thirty-two languages now, including Chinese which is great and I feel like a market has opened up in people’s heads (I don’t even want to
say market – a hole, a Jump hole – has opened in people’s heads.) People want fantasy more than ever before and I don’t think they necessarily
want the old kind of fantasy, either."
Jump Tribe Panel
Panel appearance, San Diego Comic Con, 14 July 2005
"I don't know... whether we will end up making Abarat with Disney; there's a certain disconnect between Disney and
myself. And I can't tell you anything more than that, though it would be terribly fun to do so!"
Appearance: Reading, Q&A
(i) Tattered Cover Bookshop, Denver, 20 October 2005, (ii) podcast available online at www.authorsontourlive.com as "Clive Barker Podcasts from Visions of Heaven and Hell")
"Abarat will be a movie but I am fighting very hard for them not to try making it too soon. We are no longer making Abarat with
Disney, that is now official, the work is back in my hands and my ownership, I owe them nothing. I suppose you could say
there were creative differences, I don't know. Certainly the way they wanted to do it was not the way I wanted to do it. I realised a
short while after getting into the deal with Disney and I'm glad it's come to this conclusion where we can make this movie. Though
I have to tell you, there was a man called John Harrison, who did Children of Dune for Sci-Fi channel and a bunch of other movies,
and who has just done a really smart version of the bookend tale from The Books of Blood; it's really very, very good. John has
done a very fine draft of Abarat which covers Books 1 and 2.
"In about six months I'll be writing the third book and I'll be writing the third and fourth books back-to-back; we'll really have this
narrative on a roll and these paintings are getting made. As you know there's a lot of paintings now, certainly enough now to start my
imagination going - and actually the painting part of it is the hardest part - so we have about 500 paintings that are part of that
mythology which could form part of the narrative element for Books 3, 4 and 5.
"My thing to the filmmakers is, 'Wait until I've written Book 5 and I've delivered everything and then make your movie.' The reason I say
that is because Candy doesn't age significantly - she ages maybe three years across the five books and if you're going to do this
properly then the actress can't age overmuch either and you've got to have all the books written and all the screenplays written
before you start."
Sowing The Seeds Of The Story Tree
By Phil and Sarah Stokes,
28 August and 4 September 2006 (note - full text here)
"I pulled it away from Disney because to be very honest I did that deal because I was working with two men who I liked
immensely and they swore to me they were not going anywhere and of course two months later they were gone. I watched as
the Disney organisation plodded its way through bouncing this thing back and forth not knowing what to do with it. Meanwhile I
turned in a second book, which only confused them even more.
"There just came a point where last September their time was up with the option and it was time for them to come up with a
number on the table to keep the material for a decent amount of time. Their lawyer came to us and said ‘We’re Disney, Clive’s
very lucky to be with us and here is what we propose: rather than paying you x amount and keeping the material for another two
years we keep it for four years and pay you nothing’. And I said ‘Go fuck yourself.’
"They made it so easy for me and it was lovely because I wanted so much to work with these two guys who I had done the deal
with and none whatsoever to work with Disney. That was when it was going off the rails and when Eisner started to back into the
archives of what I consider the treasure trove of the great American art that is the original Sleeping Beauty and the original
Fantasia. This is great art as far as I’m concerned and I will defend it against whoever else comes along! And it appalled me to
see them doing these straight to DVD sequels. They were just violating their own library and to me that was just desperate, just
pathetic and I just said ‘bye bye’. And now I will wait until I’ve finished all the books or near enough finished all the books and we’ll
see. As far as I’m concerned there is nowhere written that a book is not finished unless it’s turned into a film."
Jericho / Hellraiser: Clive Barker Reveals All!
By Mister Disgusting,
Bloody Disgusting.com, 7 November 2007
Michael Mendenhall (Disney): "I see them [the quartet] as being a combination of Harry Potter and a contemporary 'Wizard of Oz' but even richer in character and setting. Clive has created a mystical archipelago...
"[What drew Disney to the deal was] that the theatrical property could be developed with so many different creative executions: interactive games, TV animation, live-action TV, theme park rides, music, and reproduction of the art from the film. For us, this is a way to develop creative content that will be fresh for years to come. On this project, Clive clearly has a creative direction that's very in line with our studio."
Mouse Catches Barker
By Bill Higgins,
Daily Variety, 17 April 2000
Jane Friedman (HarperCollins President and CEO): "We are
thrilled to announce this exciting project with one of our most
successful and respected house authors. HarperCollins has published
Clive for more than 10 years, starting first in the UK. I am
continually amazed by his vision and creativity, which he is once
again sharing with a young audience. There is clearly quite a buzz
about this project, we are certain that there will be a tremendous
response from readers of all ages."
HarperCollins To Publish Children's Fantasy Series by Clive Barker
By [ ],
www.writenews.com, 26 April 2000
Jane Johnson (HarperCollins): "I've been watching the paintings
for Abarat evolve over the last four years, and they are just amazing:
vivid, kaleidoscopic, breath-taking, funny, bizarre, inspiring.
'Abarat' - in all its various forms - as book, movie, interactive
experience - will be both magical and visually stunning. We all need
some magic in our lives; and the combination of Barker and
HarperCollins and Disney is going to be just perfect for delivering
that magic."
First Major Hollywood Deal Inspired By Oil Paintings
HarperCollins press release, April 2000
Joanna Cotler (Joanna Cotler / HarperCollins): "I have always
felt that Clive has a unique vision. The Abarat Quartet will be one of
his greatest achievements. It is brilliant, vivid and inspired: pure
magic."
HarperCollins To Publish Children's Fantasy Series by Clive Barker
By [ ],
www.writenews.com, 26 April 2000
Michael Mendenhall (Disney): "The reason [Abarat is some time
off] is that we may want to push our film-making technology. If it
were to be a combination of live-action and CGI, it's a minimum of
three or four years to come out with a really fantastic property.
"Not all of the people he's painted will be a part of the movie, or a
part of any other ancillary product that's created off of this. We will
not do anything to damage the Disney brand, ever.
"We were so thrilled to get this project, Spielberg and Katzenberg and
Fox and everybody were trying to get it. Everyone was pulling out all
the stops. But we didn't razzle-dazzle. We basically went back and
presented what our assets were, what our company would do and how we
would do it."
The Relaunch of Clive Barker
By Jeff Zaleski,
Publishers Weekly, 24 September 2001
Thomas Schumacher (President, Disney animation): "I'm crazy for
the possibilities. Did you see the guy whose seven brothers live on
the antlers on his head? This thing's ripe."
Stroke Of Genius?
By Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly, 3 October 2002
Thomas Schumacher (President, Disney animation): "I have a
vision for what can be on the screen in the future that can't be on the
screen today, things we have built at Disney that people don't know
about yet and will be startling. It will be fun to do these characters,
like the guy with the heads on his antlers, with puppetry and
animatronics and computer animation and styles of paintings."
Where The Really Wild Things Are
By Dwight Garner, New York Times Magazine, 13 October 2002
John Harrison: "Both Dune and Abarat exist in the realm of the fantastical. Both have archetypal characters
and storylines that I respond to deeply, and both Frank Herbert and Clive Barker are undisputed masters at creating fully
realized, complete and integrated worlds. My job on Dune was not to change the world, but to find a way to realize it visually,
and to honor the source material as I adapted it to another medium. I learned so much from that, and I hope my success
with Dune has enabled me to do much the same with Abarat...
"Abarat will only be partially live-action. The characters are too fantastical to
realize without some accommodation to CGI. My expectation is that by the time this goes into production, there
will be technological advances allowing us to bring characters like John Mischief and Christopher Carrion to life in
all their Barker-esque glory, not dissimilar to the way Peter Jackson created Gollum."
Adapting Abarat
By Joe Nazzaro, Fantasy Worlds, No 5, February 2005
John Harrison: "I co-wrote a movie for Disney called Dinosaur several years ago, and they had bought Clive’s four
Abarat books and called me to ask if I’d be interested in adapting them. I had known Clive from some previous encounters -
near-misses, things we didn’t get to do together - and I was thrilled, because I’ve been to his house and I’ve seen his fantastic
Abarat paintings. It’s phenomenal, because he actually painted the story before he wrote it - his house is filled with canvases,
some the size of a whole wall. So I said of course, I’d love to do that.
"We’re taking the first two books and adapting them into one movie. The screenplay will go in in the next couple of weeks, and
we’ll see what happens. I don’t know what the publication schedule is for Clive’s next two books in the series, but I hope
Disney will go forward quickly with the film. It’s got incredible, fantastical characters and a really complex, dark story. He has
some wonderfully frightening characters in Abarat - these chimeras of all different shapes and sizes - and Christopher Carrion is
a truly scary bad guy.
"We’re obviously trying to design the movie for a broad audience, but I’m hoping that the darker aspects won’t get completely
removed. I have great faith in the whole grim-fairy-tale attitude about what these stories can be, and I believe that children can
handle darker stories than we give them credit for. I hope that the success of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, which didn’t pull any
punches in terms of its horrific elements, and the last Harry Potter movie will encourage the studio not to sanitize Clive’s material."
Screenwriter Talks Clive Barker’s Abarat Movie
By Michael Gingold, Fangoria.com, 24 January 2005 (note - full text online at www.fangoria.com)
John Harrison: "I adapted his Abarat books for Disney, which are currently stuck in contract negotiations, so I don’t know what’s going
to happen with that... He was very happy with the adaptation of Abarat, and I was happy that he was happy...
"It’s going to be ba hugely expensive movie and I don’t know if Disney is ready to plop down the money at the moment. We took the first
Abarat books – there are four of them, or there will be four of them – and I took the first two and created the screenplay. It’s wonderful.
It’s magical, it’s fun, it’s got great characters. All the paintings of the great characters Clive imagined come to life in this."
John Harrison (Effects)
By Devin Faraci,
Cinematic Happenings Under Development, 6 November 2005 (note: full text online at www.chud.com)
...not that we're supposed to call it 'IV'. Tony Todd broke word of the latest 'standalone' Candyman project in 2004 with the
promise of Barker's
involvement, if only as 'story consultant and an executive producer'. Indeed, Clive may well need to be on board to dispel the
ghosts of Candyman: Day Of The Dead and breathe new life into the struggling franchise, and so far Tony Todd is the only
person we've ever heard talking about it...
Tony Todd :
"Right now we’re prepping a fourth Candyman film. It’s going to be big-budget - we’re looking at $25 million. There have been a lot
of successful horror films made since we did the last movie, and Clive and I have had three or four meetings about the film, talking
about storyboarding ideas.
"It’s going to be set in New England, and the initial image will be of Candyman in a blizzard. The story is about a double identity. I
can tell you that it’s set at an all-girls college where there is a descendant of Candyman - a professor who doesn’t actually know
who or what Candyman is."
Tony Todd Talks Candyman 4 and Final Destination 3
By Calum Waddell ,
Fangoria.com, 9 March 2004 (note - full text online at www.fangoria.com)
Tony Todd :
"I'm reaching out to Clive Barker for another trip to the well. With the advent of popularity in Horror currently, I think the time is right
for the definitive version. I certainly want a crack before a current rapper gets a crack at inheriting the mantle."
Interview: Tony Todd
By Clint Morris,
Moviehole, [3] November 2003 (note - full text online at www.moviehole.net)
Tony Todd :
"There are rumors about another Candyman; it’s a ‘vs.’ film. I don’t know if it’s going to be Chucky or who!”
Tony Todd Talks Candyman 4 And More!
By Sean Decker and Jack Ulrich,
Fangoria.com, 8 June 2005 (note - full text online at www.fangoria.com)
...aka Lord of Illusions II. Barker clearly has a long-standing
relationship with his favourite detective - who can appear (and has)
when required, in any number of storylines. Harry can provide that
sense of first person involvement crucial to writer and reader alike
and is already a well-known and trusted character - so if Vipex doesn't
come off then expect to see Harry cropping up somewhere else instead.
Interestingly, the bio of Barker in the UK Gods and Monsters DVD
booklet (released in June 2000) described the project as
"in the works" - the first we'd heard about it for almost two years.
Whilst news in July 2001 of a Harry D'Amour TV series for MGM (see TV Still To Come...) signalled a shift to the small screen,
it now looks like the movie option is back in favour...
"Harry is the 'good guy' in the story. At least, he's perceived that way. So I'm hoping
that, if we do manage a sequel to this picture, I'd get to bring Harry D'Amour back.
He's the interesting character to me, he's the man with the haunted past. He's just had
a bit of bad luck when it comes to meeting up with the occult. If we do make another
movie with Harry, it may give us the chance to keep the material fresh. The ideal model
for this is the television series Night Stalker, which I always loved. I'd like to
think that we could do something similar with Harry. I think Bakula was tremendous
playing the part of Harry. He's a very reassuring, accessible person which, curiously,
frees me up to be a lot nastier. Because the movie has such an accessible figure at its
heart, it frees me up to be far colder and nastier."
A Graveside Chat With Clive Barker
By Jim Moore,
Deathrealm, Fall 1996 (note: interview took place in 1995)
"I definitely want to once again have the mingling of reality and wild,
dark fantasy that marked the first one - it should be a major part of
the second. I want to see if we could do that again. Harry comes
back [not Nix] and I think it will be set in New York, but I'm just
playing with that now. I'd like to have a completely fresh title and
emphasise that it's the same character. That would be my ideal and
we'd work from there."
The Conjuring of Lord of Illusions part 5 - The Last Interview
By Anthony C. Ferrante,
Fangoria, No 146, September 1995 {Note: interview took place in early Spring 1995}
"I've been writing about
Harry as a character now for ten years and he's encountered a lot of
strange things in novels and short stories and so part of this [sequel
to Lord Of Illusions] is going and taking him on a fresh adventure.
One of the fun things about him as a character, I think, is being
funny, accessible, sexy, all those things and, I don't know if I've
said this before but horror movies and dark supernatural movies are
driven by their villains. When you think about a horror movie you
think about the villain: you think about Pinhead; you think about the
Candyman; you think about Freddy Kreuger; you think about Isuzu possessing
poor little Linda Blair. You don't think about good guys. What I've
had to do in this movie is make it so that you care about the good guy.
So, forget about Nix - he's gone, all those guys are gone, never to be
seen again. I don't want to have that thing of, 'Oh-oh, the monster's back...'
We've pulled out the stake and all of that stuff - it's time to take
the story somewhere fresh and hopefully the series can continue in some
way, maybe develop the idea of an emotional arc for Harry - which has
certainly occurred in the books - so that as we live with Harry, as it
were, from story to story we understand him better.
"One of the things that happens to him in Lord Of Illusions is he walks
off into a rather grim-looking future with Dorothea. What's happened
to Dorothea might indeed be an element in the next picture; not that
Dorothea will be, but you know, just to finish off that arc of the
story."
Leapcon 1996
Transcript of an appearance at Leapcon, the Quantum Leap convention, 18 February 1996
"There will be a sequel. We're shooting it for a video release, much
like the Darkman sequels were made. I'm hoping that Bakula will return.
He's making his mind up at the moment. If he decides not to do it,
we'll recast the role. After all, we will soon have had four Batmen
with George Clooney taking the lead, so changing the actor really
shouldn't affect the series and I've always wanted to take Harry to
television. He is a natural for a TV series, with shades of Kolchak,
the night stalker."
Lord Of Illusion
By [ ],
Home Cinema Choice, September 1996
Scott Bakula :
"I would love to [play Harry again]. There is already talk of a sequel.
We are all wonderfully optimistic. We can go a lot of places with the
character."
The Big Leap
By Edward Gross,
Cinescape, Vol 1, No 11, August 1995
"United Artists is talking about it, starring Scott Bakula. It is supposed to
start shooting next year. It will have a television and video life. I don't
know if Scott has committed yet, but I think he will. He's not had great luck
as of late, but he's a very talented actor and I like working with him. He
had a great time working on the movie. Craig [Scheffer - Nightbreed] had some
problems. Scott, on the other hand, is solid. He's an old fashioned star, in
the sense that he learns his lines and he comes on and does what he needs to
do. I have nothing but respect for the man. So, we will see what happens
with the sequel. If it works, the idea is to then do a Harry D'Amour
television series."
Confessions
By [Stephen Dressler and Cheryl Bentzen],
Lost Souls, Issue 6, January 1997
"[Vipex is] still in the works. It hasn't gone away, it has just taken
something of a back seat to a whole bunch of other things that have
been going on this year. I provided a story. The script - which is
very good - was written by David Campbell Wilson, who wrote this new
movie 'Supernova' which Walter Hill is directing. It's a really
first-rate script, but we just haven't focused a lot on the project.
"The material still fascinates me because Harry fascinates me. Lord of
Illusions has had a wonderful afterlife on video, laser and now DVD.
Harry was always intended to be a character we could revisit. And, of
course, he has a large place in the third book of The Art."
Lord of New Illusions
By W.C.Stroby,
Fangoria, No 175, August 1998
"I would very much like to make another film with Harry D’Amour and those discussions have already taken place. We have
a script, with the title Vipex, which in my opinion is rather good."
Confession
By Daniel Conrad and Benoît Domis,
Mauvais Genres, France Culture, 12 January 1999 (Note - translated from the French.)
"I think we will see more movies about
Harry D'Amour, and it will be as you anticipated,
on DVD/VHS more likely than on the big screen.
Unfortunately, the movie Lord of Illusions did
only modestly well theatrically, and the powers
that be did not think it deserved a theatrical
sequel."
Horror In Books And Movies: Clive Barker
By [ ],
USA Today Online Chat, The Nation Talks : Live, 31 October 2000 (Note -
full text at usatoday.com)
"Well the idea is that we will take the D'Amour character and we will do more with him for television. And then eventually we decided
this would be better as a movie. So I think we are trying to figure it as a movie right now. That is why I am using the word sequel... but
that is something we are certainly contemplating right now.."
Confessions
By Craig Fohr, Lost Souls, 1 August 2003 (note - full text online at Lost Souls - see links page)
...A small syndicated news column is reporting that Seraphim have optioned a book by Josh Kilmer-Purcell - I Am Not Myself - the true
story of of a New York drag queen. An advertising executive by day, his alter ego, 'Aquadisiac', heads downtown by night.
Apparently recommended by Barker, HarperCollins plan to publish I Am Not Myself in 2006...
[HarperCollins editor: 'I'm really not the drag-queen type, Clive.'] "Read this book, you'll be the type!"
Trailer Parks And Other Bare Facts
By Liz Smith,
Newsday, 30 March 2005
