More Films That Got Away...

The Great Unknown: Harry D'Amour's First Adventure ...The prequel to Lord of Illusions and a third D'Amour picture... Well, come on Clive - if George Lucas can do it... "'Harry D'Amour' is a very elaborate screenplay with lots of creatures in it, which may now not be my next movie... 'Harry' is the largest and the most extensive special effects-wise [of the current planned projects]. It's also the most expensive, because it's set in New York, and obviously some work has to be done there. "'Harry D'Amour' I guess we have to describe as a fantasy rather than a horror movie… It's based on the character [in The Last Illusion], but 'The Last Illusion' will essentially be a sequel. Again it's a series of pictures rather than a single picture. 'The Last Illusion' will probably be the second of the pictures about Harry. The first one sets up a whole series of events which will be dealt with through the subsequent pictures… It's something much, much weirder than [Harry at the Hess House]. Even by my own standards the events in the first Harry d'Amour screenplay are deeply weird. I was in LA a couple of weeks ago taking the material round and there were certain people who said, 'This is simply too weird', and I thought I must be doing something right. I don't think it'll be weirder [than 'Beetlejuice'], but it's certainly up there. And I'm reassured by that because so much Hollywood product of late has been so bland… It gives me great satisfaction that the audience for that kind of picture is out there. I think that the great thing about low budget picture-making is that you've got the freedom you wouldn't have if you were making a massively expensive picture in which there were a lot of creative forces. The great value of modestly-budgeted pictures is the freedom to take the imagination in quite radical directions, and we will always use the freedom to its utmost." Chains of Love By Mark Salisbury Fear, No 3, December 1988 "That's my next movie, as a director. It's based less upon The Last Illusion and more upon Harry D'Amour, who is the lead character in that story; and what I've done is a screenplay which is the first part of a projected trilogy about Harry D'Amour (which is written, and I'm just doing some refinements to) and in principle we should get into pre-production probably the end of this year [1988]... "[In August 1989] we'll go into pre-production for the next movie. The Last Illusion will probably constitute a hefty part of the second of the three Harry pictures, but basically what we've got underway is the Harry D'Amour notion, that Harry is alive and well and living in the next picture." Weaving Words With Clive Barker By Leigh Blackmore, Terror Australis, Vol 1, No1, Autumn 1988 "Harry's always had a lot of creatures, but I probably won't do Harry until, at the earliest, the latter part of 1989. That's certainly on the agenda as well." Running With The Monsters By Gerald Houghton, Grim Humour, No 14, [Autumn] 1989 The Great and Secret Show ...Apart from the little aside below, nothing has ever been mentioned about this one... "Four projects are being developed by studios from my work [Weaveworld, In The Flesh, Lord of Illusions and Hellraiser III]. The Great and Secret Show has also been bought." Barker Bites Back By Anthony Timpone, (i) Fangoria Horror Spectacular, No 1, 1990 (ii) Fangoria : Masters of the Dark Eden USA ...Alien visitors to the town of Lawson return the gift of Nature's delights, squandered by humankind, but bring also a touch of humanlike megalomania to sour the occasion. With touches reminiscent of the unravelling Weaveworld, this was to be Barker's pre-Sacrament treatise on the wonders of Nature, in its many varied forms... "The next film will be a science fiction movie called Eden USA which I've written and will direct, probably sometime early next year [1992]. I'll be doing a couple more drafts of the screenplay and hopefully we'll then just get on and do it. There certainly seems to be enthusiasm at Universal for it, which is good. It's fairly top secret at this point, but it's a science fiction/fantasy movie and it's Clive Barker weird." Boundless Imajination By WC Stroby, (i) Fangoria, No 109, January 1992 (ii) Horror Zone, No1, August 1992 {Note : interview took place in August 1991} "My major bad habit is work. I've always got five projects going. Um… at the moment there's the books - Thief of Always and a novel, Everville - and the comics, and the screenplay for The Last Illusion, which is the one I'll direct next year - well, either that or Eden USA - then the executive producing…." L A Gore By Paul Mungo, GQ, December 1992 "It is called Eden USA. That's all that I can really say. They've [Universal] obliged me to keep silent. What can I say? I think it will be PG. It's a science fiction movie. I think it's going to be fun." Dread Speaks with Clive Barker By [Michael Brown], Dread, No 3, December 1991 "The next film project that I will do will be a science fiction film for Universal Studios called Eden USA...It's an original [new Barker story]. The third draft is being typed up by typist in L.A. this weekend [4th January, 1992] and I'll have it to the producers within a week. Hopefully that will be the next film project people see from me" An Interview With Clive Barker By Robert Errera, Hecate's Cauldron, Vol 1, Issue 3, 1992 (note - interview took place 4th January 1992) "Universal, as you know, perhaps more than anyone else, has not had a great year. There was basically a falling off of confidence there - confidence I think in making these kinds of movies, fantastical movies. Getting them to commit to anything was just impossible. I am still not discounting the possibility that we will get the film going sometime this year, but I'm not holding my breath." Clive Barker By J.B.Macabre, World of Fandom, Spring 1993, Volume 2 No.18 Hellraiser: Helloween ...Well, we were a little sceptical when we first heard tell of this a few of years ago, but the rumours persisted... Helped, no doubt, by the then-recent franchise cross-over success of Freddy Vs Jason, September 2003 saw the launch of an "official" poll to determine fan interest in a match-up between Pinhead and Halloween's Michael Myers, building on Dave Parker's original pitch ideas and the 'Helloween' title. As the rumour mill swung into full action, new stories emerged almost daily, including that the match-up would not be restricted to the on screen action and that, behind the scenes, both Barker and John Carpenter were planning a return to their respective roots. Meanwhile, Dark Horizons hinted at a rush-job for Halloween 2004 on a Barker script... Barker then confirmed the idea, but rights issues got in the way - and that online poll that said "no thanks" also seems to have played a part... "I was invited to write the movie, but the people who own the Halloween movie rights didn’t want to do it. John Carpenter was going to direct it. I thought it would have been a pretty cool idea." Darkness And Light By Mark Schaefer, Penny Blood, Issue 2, Spring 2005 Dave Parker : “I had pitched, unsuccessfully, Freddy vs Jason to a guy named Ross Hammer at Sean Cunningham's company around '94 or early '95. After that didn't go well, I started think about what other franchises were at other studios. It was a no-brainer to see that Dimension had both the Halloween and Hellraiser franchises, so I put together a trailer using footage from the Halloween movies, including Halloween 6 which was just getting ready to come out, and the Hellraiser movies 1 thru 4. I did new narration [for the trailer] and I called the idea Helloween - I know not the most ground breaking idea and will probably induce many groans... "[I] stayed true to the best elements of Halloween and returned Hellraiser back to the mythology that Clive Barker and Pete Atkins established." Michael, Meet Pinhead By Ryan Rotten, Creature Corner, 20 August 2003 Dave Parker : “It explained certain things about Michael Myers and why he is what he is, and that led to opening the doors for Pinhead to come in. My thing was, how come Michael Myers could never die? It's obviously taking some liberties and I'm not saying this is the greatest idea ever or anything like that; I was just trying to come up with a plausible way to get these two guys together to fight. So, why does he all of a sudden go out and kill his sister in Halloween? He's trick-or-treating in a flashback and he goes up to this one house and at this time, I was really trying to tie it into everything that was put into the Halloween films. So he goes into the house and sees the guy with the black boots, who gives him the box. He opens it and the Lord of the Dead - Sam Hain - escapes from hell and takes over Michael's body because he doesn't want to be in hell. Now, Sam Hain is who the Shape is, and that's why he can't be killed. "So, the story takes place when people try to destroy the Myers house and they find the box hidden between the walls. Of course, they open it and Pinhead shows up, and it's Halloween and it's the Myers house, so Michael shows up because there are people there and Pinhead recognizes that Michael is Sam Hain because he can feel it - which begins this whole battle in the real world. And of course, the third act takes them all to hell... "I took footage from Hellraiser movies and Halloween movies and cut a trailer. Then I had a computer guy do a final piece, which was the skull pumpkin from Halloween II moving in and then Pinhead's pins emerge out of it. That was my image to sell it with. I showed this trailer to the guy who was then in charge of development at Dimension. He was like, 'That's really interesting stuff, but we're not ready to do that sort of movie at this time.' So I was like, 'OK, at least I got to show it.'" Dave Parker Talks Director's Cut And Hellraiser Vs Halloween By [ ], Fangoria.com, 8 October 2003 Doug Bradley : “At this point in fact, Dimension Films are planning a Hellraiser/Halloween crossover. They are hoping to have it out by Halloween next year. That would be pretty fast, but that’s their plan." Pinhead Terrorizes Brownsville By Kevin Garcia, The Brownsville Herald, 23 October 2003 Doug Bradley : "Well, such a movie was well and truly in the works last year. As soon as Freddy vs Jason stomped all over the box office on its opening weekend, Dimension wanted Pinhead vs Michael made yesterday. It was full speed ahead – the plan I believe was to have it in theatres – yes, theatres – for this Halloween [2004]. With Clive Barker slated to write it and John Carpenter directing it, it looked like a fascinating, mouth-watering prospect. And then it stopped dead in its tracks – I believe because of opposition from one of the Akkads. As far as I know, that’s where it stays. Fans at Horrorfind were showing me a recent USA Today which said Dimension were currently developing the movie – but that, or suggestions that it may be an animated film, is news to me. I honestly don’t know what the state of play is right now. " Hell Raiser Interview By Mike Hodge, www.milenko500.com, 25 August 2004 Shock Cinema ...Originally a Seraphim project with Fox, it looks like this one stalled with Spelling... "We also have a movie called Shock Cinema, a modestly scaled horror movie. This was one of the Spelling pictures which we now have a couple of people interested in looking at. We have a slew of things going on." Confessions By [Stephen Dressler and Cheryl Bentzen], Lost Souls, Issue 10, June 1998 Baby Blue Love ...We'd be hard pressed to name anything that we've heard Barker talk about less than Baby Blue Love and it's not clear what creative involvement, if any, Barker had on this project. A screenplay by Rico Martinez, this seriously off-beat but engagingly weird tale concerned Johnny Burns, a teenager whose adrenaline glands pump out unnatural levels of 'speed' direct into his bloodstream. Transforming himself into a drag racing speed freak called Red Hot, he and a speed queen named Hot Pink engage on a series of set pieces that give the impression Martinez himself was on the same sort of adrenaline rush as Johnny. Sadly, no takers for this one... "I'm also involved in a couple of other projects; one called Baby Blue Love..." A Graveside Chat With Clive Barker By Jim Moore, Deathrealm, Fall 1996 (note: interview took place in 1995) Graveyard Shift ...Never discussed by Barker himself in any interview we've seen, but an exasperated Tom Savini suggests that, at one stage before Savini finally got to direct some episodes of Tales From The Darkside and the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead, Barker was involved with an unfilmed rewrite of Stephen King's Graveyard Shift screenplay... Tom Savini : "Y'know, I'm in Hell. I'm in living Hell. My Hell is, 'OK, you want to direct a film? Great. We'll get you very close eight, nine, ten times. The last second, we'll pull it out from under you.' That's my punishment. In a previous life, I'm in Hell. So I thoroughly believe that, if it happens, I'm not in Hell. "Y'know, OK, very, very close : Graveyard Shift is a prime example - script written by Stephen King, rewritten by Clive Barker, George Romero executive producing, me directing - what a great package! New World had that. For a year we went around. We were so close, we were signed, I had a contract - I still have a contract with them. Although they've gone to TV now, mainly the thing is that, 'Fine, if you don't do a feature, we'll get you to direct for TV, a TV Movie or something.' Fine. Great. I don't care, but we were so close and then they dropped it saying that, 'We don't feel we can develop a story about rats... Well, there are rats in it, but it's not a story about rats. I swear to God, two days later I look in the newspaper and 'New World presents - Slugs.' Y'know - so what's the difference?" Document of the Dead Tom Savini interviewed for the George Romero documentary, Document of the Dead, [date]. Godzilla ...It's tricky to know how much of a serious proposition this was for Barker. TriStar were looking for writers following their 1992 deal for an American Godzilla and eventually chose Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott. Their Godzilla Vs Gryphon script struggled in development hell under director Jan DeBont for two years before finally failing just as cameras were set to roll... Steve Ryfle : "Rossio and Elliott seemed an odd choice for such a big assignment, especially in comparison to other higher-profile writers who were also considered. They included horror kingpin Clive Barker, who reportedly came up with story ideas that the studio considered 'too dark' and Predator screenwriters Jim Thomas and John Thomas." Remade In America By Steve Ryfle, Japan's Favorite Mon-Star, 1998 Son of Rawhead Rex ...Now surely we're kidding...aren't we?... "Oh I'd love to do that. I have a horrible feeling that the rights to Rawhead Rex film sequels probably still belong to the people who made the original movie...I think they have it in perpetuity, which is regrettable. Besides which, I think it would be very difficult to sell, to pitch, the sequel to a pretty bad movie." Rawhead Rex - The Creator By [ ], Dread, No 6, 1992 History of the Devil Movie ...At one stage, this looked like it would be the first of the pre-Books of Blood plays to come up for the big screen experience, but it now looks like it's heading for the small screen instead (see TV Still To Come...)... "Yes we have considered a movie of the History of the Devil, but with theatrical productions of the play springing up across the country, I think I will leave the movie life of the piece for a little while." AOL Appearance Transcript of on-line appearance, 16 July 1996 "Well, we should get a script for that actually this week, yeah. There's a fellow who's doing a script of it. It's interesting, you'll like this: the play was just banned in my home country. There was a production of it that has been touring around and I guess they took it to some place and they said 'No, no! You can't do this. This is blasphemous.' And of course this was a play that was sold out in every other place it went to. It made the headlines. It's remarkable to me that we should be sitting here in 1998, and it's still possible for something you can write, can be deemed so troubling to people. Of course the people who did the show were delighted, they made so much money! It was the Christ and the Devil scene that did it. I think he says 'I fancy a death, something with horses.' and the Devil says 'No, too messy.'" Explorer From The Far Reaches Of Experience By Kim August, Pharr Out! 1998 "History of the Devil as a movie is being worked on right now. A brilliant screenplay from the play has just been turned in by a man by the name of Matt Wilder. He's a theater director, loved the play and wanted to do it as a movie. [re. casting the Devil] "My number one choice would be John Malkovich. I love John. He's an extraordinary actor. This may surprise you a little, but I would also go for someone like Samuel Jackson. He might be an unconventional choice but he's brilliant, charismatic and would be wonderful. There are almost as many Devils as there are choices. Where I wouldn't go, though I thought the performance was marvellous and enjoyed him immensely, would be Pacino (The Devil's Advocate). I did enjoy the movie and I thought he was marvellous to watch. Pacino's wonderful, but it's very on the nose. My Devil is far less on the nose, less of a ranter. Can I throw something else in? The Devil doesn't have to be male. Maybe it's time that we changed tactics here. Traditionally he's always been male but it would be wonderful to cast a woman who could play the part with great sexual ambiguity as it was played in Chicago at the Next Theatre. I don't know who, in our present cinematic landscape, that could pull that off. There probably aren't many people but we shouldn't discount the possibility of really going for such unconventional casting." Confessions By [Stephen Dessler and Cheryl Bentzen], Lost Souls, Issue 10, June 1998 "Clearly live theater is very immediate but necessarily limited visually. The film we have planned will be very ambitious visually and takes off in fresh directions." The Dominion Transcript of an on-line session at The Dominion, website of the Sci-Fi Channel, 8 March 1999 Matthew Wilder : "In the last year... I also wrote American Heretics, a pilot for HBO and executive producer Clive Barker that's a sort of alternative history of America [and] History Of The Devil for Clive's Seraphim Films, an adaptation of the play." Alumni News UCSD, 1999 (note - online at www-theatre.ucsd.edu/) Click here for Films Still To Come... ...And Still To Come Index | Home page This page has been created for information and entertainment purposes only. All quotes remain the copyright of the original owners.