Current Film Projects

The Damnation Game

...After languishing in our 'TV Still to Come...' section as a potential mini-series for several years, The Damnation Game was unveiled in April 2001 as a big screen adaptation. Continuing Seraphim's unerring ability to sell scripts, Phoenix Pictures paid "a mid-six-figure" number for the rights to Barker's debut novel, with Barker producing and John Heffernan working on the adaptation.
Warner Bros. then picked up the picture, bringing along some interesting names to the deal. Big name rumours spread of the inclusion of Paul Newman and Sean Connery - with Connery producing alongside Barker, and a 'source' being widely quoted on the prospect of more names being attached to the $40m project, "There has been a lot of financial wrangling to get Newman and Connery at a cut rate with a share of the profits to come." Ed Harris, Kim Basinger and Dame Maggie Smith were also reported to be considering supporting roles in the venture, which was to be shot in New York and Connecticut. Barker, however, remained suitably wary of such rumours (see below). Three years on, personnel changes at Warner left the project without support there, but December 2006 saw Seraphim's Anthony Diblasi having turned in his version of the script. Further drafts from Diblasi through 2007 have been positively received by Phoenix and Clive remains highly confident about this adaptation of his first, and one of his best, novels...

"[The Damnation Game will not] wink at you, in the way that so many horror films today do, with a comedic or semi-comedic self-referential tone... we will do our damndest to scare people in the old fashioned way.
"There's so many books I've written where I just know, 'No way is this ever going to be a film' but this one has the right size and feel. You don't have to cut out too much of the story, which in this case is a Faust story - without the Devil."

Interview

By [ ], Daily Variety, 4 April 2001

"Warner Brothers, as you know, are doing Damnation Game... I don't know where [the rumours of big names] came from - I assume those names came from Warner Brothers... They worried me! I think at one point I saw Paul Newman and I saw Sean Connery... I don't think either of them are very likely, frankly! We have a $45 million movie here!
"It's really hard to see where these things come from. Obviously somebody's given some thought to this - it isn't just names pulled out of a bag... it was a weird thing."

Nips And Tucks, Tits And Fucks

By Phil & Sarah Stokes, 10 July 2001 (note - full text here)

"I chose him, so yes [I'm happy with the screenwriter]. His name is John Heffernan. He's a young guy who I think is just amazing. Tremendous. So, I think he's a tremendous guy, a tremendous writer and I think he's going to do a great job with Damnation Game."

Clive's Busy, Busy, Busy, Busy Year

By Smilin' Jack Ruby, 13th Street, 12 July 2001 (note - full text online at www.13thstreet.com)

"You know, there are lots of elements in my work that are very difficult for people, so difficult at times I look back and I think this is hard stuff. I'm getting the script for Damnation Game today. Warner Bros. is making the movie Damnation Game and John Heffernan who wrote the script that we're turning in today says it is very, very dark. So I went back and read the book and I thought shit, this is a very grim book. And this comes out of my psyche the same way the colourful paintings for Abarat come out of my psyche. It's all a part of Clive Barker. It would be hard to say that I like Damnation Game I don't know that I do. Even though I'm the author of it. It's way grim, you know."

Confessions

By Craig Fohr, Lost Souls, 22 February 2002 (note - online at www.clivebarker.com)

"Damnation Game has just been turned in as a finished script to Warner Bros. and they seem very encouraging about this being something that they want to make. I don't know whether that will go into pre-production this year but it's moved along much faster than we thought it was going to."

Open Roads... What Price Wonderland?

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 3 April 2002 (note - full text here)

"I can't speak about a specific writer right now, but Warner Bros. are bringing in the writer of a great horror movie of yore to come and do a final draft of Damnation Game. I hate to be so coy about this, but if he gets to do it, I feel he will bring it on home and then we can make that movie."

Confessions

By Craig Fohr, Lost Souls, 1 August 2003 (note - full text online at Lost Souls)

"Well, it seems like it's not going to be at Warner Bros. anymore. It's definitely going to be a movie; curiously, though it started earlier than the other [projects], it's further off than the others. Just because of Warner's change of people - the people who bought it were removed from office, for various reasons which I can't talk about, and they were gone. One day we called them up and they were gone! I know it sounds weird, but it really is the way this town works and there are so many reasons why people are removed and there's so much politics, so much politics."

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)

"We also have Damnation Game being scripted - though I think it will be a year or two away. Yeah, I think it is a good one and I'm excited by that."

Clive Barker On The Phone

By [Thomas Hemmerich], That's Clive!, 29 March 2005 (note - full text online at www.clivebarker.de)

"With Damnation Game, we still have a lot to do and it's a difficult novel to adapt. There's a lot of internal stuff in it; of course everybody remembers 'the zombie who doesn't know he's a zombie' and all that stuff, but in actual fact there's a lot of psychological stuff that is much harder to get on the screen."

Weird Fantasy

By Joe Nazzaro, Starburst, Special No 76, July 2006

"[The second draft is] tremendous, and it's been delivered to Mike Medavoy at Phoenix and I guess he's reading right now and we'll see what his response is. I'm incredibly proud of Mr Diblasi - you know this is a guy who came in to Seraphim what, four years ago, and now he's a fully-fledged writer and he's soon to be writer/director and I am incredibly impressed."

A Spiritual Retreat

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 26 March 2007 (note - full text here)

John Heffernan : "This isn't Devil-with-a-pitchfork kind of stuff, it's more visceral. It's about the worst kind of hell: the evil that men do to one another.
"After a time, you start to sympathize with the antagonist, too. After all, the Devil always makes good on his bargains. It's man who is always trying to get out of the deal."

Damnation Game Signs On Scribe

By [ ], Really Scary.com, 15 May 2001

Anthony Diblasi : "I've had the privilege to work along side Clive creatively for several years now, and that in itself has helped me immeasurably in adapting his work. The themes that run though Clive's writing, from his short stories, plays to his novels, connect with me personally. So no matter how much I change the structure for the adaptation, for me it still rings faithful, because I've stayed true to the themes. I've been working on Damnation Game for many years now as a producer, and it has always been a tough adaptation. The characters are very complex, and it often becomes difficult to capture those complexities for the screen. I feel I was lucky when I found a way into the story, or more specifically, the voice to tell the story properly. The biggest challenge for me so far has been length. Keeping the script to a manageable page count for an audience. It may seem like a small problem, but it's an important part of the process, there's so much to tell, and being able to tell it in an economic way is crucial. But I'm getting there, and so far it's been a very exciting journey for me."

Damnation Game

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 3 April 2007

Joe Daley : "The strike unfortunately put the pin on a lot of our material. However, Damnation Game is now going out to directors. That one has not been held up."

Fear Factory

By [ ], SFX, No 168, April 2008

The Adventures Of Mr. Maximillian Bacchus And His Travelling Circus

...written over an extended period but certainly finalised around 1974 as Clive finished university, the tale of Mister Bacchus was published in 2009 (see bibliography here) and subsequently adapted for the screen by Mark Miller. Now news reaches us of studio interest in making the movie...

"I was influenced by the stories of Lord Dunsany, with a wilful use of fantastic names. None of the characters in Bacchus were based on real people; actually that's not true, Ophelia, the ballerina, had a little of Ann Taylor who wanted to be a ballerina and the perfect prince was Graham Bickley who was just the most beautiful of people, a wonderful looking 18 year-old. I was Bacchus, the ringmaster."

Liverpool Lives

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, Memory, Prophecy and Fantasy (Volume 1), 2009 (see ordering details here)

"The only things that will come with it are some very poor black and white photographs that I took of the lost artwork - there were six pieces, all of which were given as gifts, all of which have been lost. There's Jozabiah Bentham and his crew, there's one of Bacchus, there's a demon boy which is half-finished, two or three other things but not very much..."

A Skein, A Train: Connections Made, Connections Missed...

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 17 July 2008 (note - full text here)

"The only thing I regret is I was hoping that maybe the picture I did of Jozabiah Bentham and his Circus would be flushed out by the publicity - I hoped someone had it... You don't happen to have a reproduction of that up on your site? I did a very detailed ink with a Rötring pen. I think it would be nice to have it on the site - it might be that someone is looking at it on their wall or something and there will be lots of people who visit the site who won't buy the book and it wouldn't hurt because even if we could just get a very high resolution scan of it, because I've got a piss-poor 35mil photograph of it, it would be really, really nice to have that - so there's maybe someone looking at it, or maybe somebody's just trashed it... "

The Bleed Between The Apprentice And The Master

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 28 February and 7 March 2009 (note - full text here - see Clive's sketch of Jozabiah Bentham there!)

"New Machine Studios is a Canadian animation company that is optioning "The Adventures of Mr. Maximillian Bacchus and His Travelling Circus," and buying the script, which has been adapted from my book by Mr. Mark Miller of Seraphim Studios. He's done a wonderful job."

Facebook Posts

By Clive Barker, 29 July 2013

Abarat

...five years after the initial Disney deal expired, 2012 brought news of a fresh start on the cinematic possibilities for the Abarat, with Clive quietly confident about new negotiations with an enthusiastic team. In May 2013 Clive announced that he has been working with David Barron...

"I can't say very much right now but the people involved are very committed to what they're doing. We're in active negotiations to make several Abarat movies and I think people will be delighted to hear that the people we're talking to are people who are good at making these kinds of movies - very large scale, very expensive and very visual and, boy, Abarat is going to be, I think, a very different kind of movie: certainly one thing they have is several hundred pictures as points of reference. These people are good at making these kinds of movies - and it isn't Disney!!"

A Light, Hidden

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 12 and 14 March 2012 (note - full text here)

"I am very optimistic that we will have news about an Abarat Movie at some point in the future. But my Irish-Italian ancestry makes me a superstitious son of a bitch, and I don't want to spoil our chances [to] make something come to fruition by getting too cocky or certain about any future possibilities. Let me say this; if there is any project of mine which seems to holler, 'Film me! Film me!' it would be the Abarat books. There as you all probably know FIVE in total. The scale of the story expands exponentially as we move towards the cosmic climax of those five books. It's going to be an incredible challenge for the filmmakers who take on the project to create the mystical visions and transfigurations that the whole journey of the Abarat books is taking us towards."

Facebook Q&A

Replies to questions at a live Facebook Q&A session, 15 December 2012

"Nothing in cinema is reliable, but I have high hopes that there will be a series of ABARAT films. The project has already drawn the services of one of the most experienced producers of modern fantasy film. His name is David Barron. He was the producer of all but one of the Potter films. A great friend and a superb producer."

Facebook Updates

By Clive Barker, 2 May 2013

Tortured Souls - The Movie

...Another challenge for the MPAA... Just a few short days after industry rumours had Barker sending sets of the Tortured Souls figures to studios as a speculative pitch for a feature, early November 2001 saw both Variety and Hollywood Reporter proclaiming that Universal had picked up the movie rights (for a mid six-figure sum against $2 million) to what they may be hoping will form the basis of a new franchise - the Universal deal is for three pictures.
Seraphim and McFarlane have reportedly managed to get their own Joe Daley and Terry Fitzgerald (respectively) attached as co-producers along with Barker and Todd McFarlane. Barker completed a treatment which Hans Rodionoff (who had writing duties on Saint Sinner) worked up into a screenplay.
A whole year passed in silence until, in December 2003, Lost Souls broke the news that Barker was back on writing duties himself for a new re-write - and that he had signed up to direct the movie...
The storyline is reported to involve a diabolical pact with a man swapping his wife for a demon goddess - Lucidique. She is thereby banished to a monstrous world from which she must escape if she is to save her child and overthrow the demon.
McFarlane continue to be extremely encouraging about the progress of the project, having received initial sketches from Clive to accompany the screenplay which McFarlane and Universal have been discussing with him. Latest news (see below) is that Universal have given the project more time, in which Todd McFarlane will work on a further rewrite. Meanwhile, Clive is concentrating his own efforts on other projects and it is unlikely that he will personally direct Tortured Souls...
See our toys and games pages for more comment on the figures themselves...

"We're really looking forward to pursuing a film featuring these characters. Ideally that will work out."

Clive From New York

By [ ], McFarlane.com, 13 February 2001 (N.B. full text available at www.mcfarlane.com)

[Re Six Destinies] "I don't think there is a book in there, but there's certainly a movie. The city of Primordium, which is where all this takes place, that's a city that I'll definitely be visiting again."

Souls' Survivor

By Anthony C. Ferrante, Cinescape, Issue 56, January 2002

"There's a lot of excitement over at Universal about having that [Tortured Souls] project as a movie. That's going to be a fast-track project as well."

Open Roads... What Price Wonderland?

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 3 April 2002 (note - full text here)

"Yes, we did [recently hire a screenwriter]. I'm delighted; there seems to be real passion at Universal for the project, which is great, and I feel that Universal is the 'home of monsters'. In some ways, it's the perfect place for us to be."

Clive Barker, Author

By Gina McIntyre, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 October 2002

"That project is coming along nicely. We've got a writer who's working from a very detailed treatment of mine, and of course we already have all of the monsters designed. So I'm very confident in the development process. We should be off to the races. We feel that it could become a franchise."

Saint Clive

By Chris Wyatt and Anthony C. Ferrante, Cinescape, Issue 66 and 67, November / December 2002

"Tortured Souls we have what we hope is the final draft coming in in two weeks time. Then that will go to Universal, and hopefully we'll start to make that movie, and that will be great. At least that's what we plan."

Confessions

By Craig Fohr, Lost Souls, 1 August 2003 (note - full text online at Lost Souls)

"I'm turning in the script in four weeks, and if Universal likes it, they're prepared to go into production right away. I've taken the Tortured Souls toys and really expanded their universe, so it'll be different than what fans are expecting."

Clive Barker Update On Tortured Souls

By [ ], Fangoria.com, 29 January 2004 (note - full text online at www.fangoria.com)

"Our heroine is transported to Primordium, which is a place of darkness and horror and monsters, and now she has to figure out a way to survive, along with a way to get back for three reasons: one, she wants to get back for her son who's only four years old; second, she wants to fuck over her husband for sending her to this place; and thirdly, she wants to deal with that bitch who's in her bed.
"These are adult people with adult problems. The battles which will be fought will not just be fought for the sheer physical effect. The effects should look great, the monsters should be cool but also, because there's something at stake here, you care about somebody. It's all about human interest."

Barker Promises 'Intense' Return To The Genre

By Jen Vuckovic, Rue Morgue, No 39, May/June 2004

"I'm going to make a movie for Universal, called Tortured Souls... An incredibly violent picture, based upon a series of models that I created with Todd McFarlane and my team here, called The Tortured Souls. And it's fun to play in these two areas; to dabble in something a little, you know, dark for a while, just for a year to make this movie, I'll be doing that. "

Barnes and Noble Stage Presentation

By Brein Lopez, LA Festival of Books, 2004

"I came home to address the notes which Universal had given me, which are not massive, on the draft which I'm now working on - it's in front of me here. And I will, that's what I will work on 'til it's delivered, which hopefully will be sometime later in the summer. It will then be Universal's choice to make it or not make it. In the meantime, I'll get on with finishing the collection of short stories while they're making up their minds, because that's never as short a process as you think it's going to be. You hope they're going to come back to you in a week, in the end it's always months and that's just the way it is; there's nothing to do about it...
[Early 2005 decision on Tortured Souls?] "I think probably that's exactly the timing. The truth is I'm on tour for Abarat II anyway through some portions of October / November, so I couldn't even begin prepping a movie even if they said so. They wouldn't begin in December because nobody starts prepping a movie in December - you go into hiatus December 14th anyway. So the earliest we could possibly start something would be January. And by that time, yes, I would hope I would have an answer - absolutely."

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)

"It will be taking elements of the story, character elements, little stories from the models, but it goes off in its own, very particular direction, and it's a story I really look forward to telling, I'm very excited about the prospect of getting out there and shedding the romantic cloth. It's a very scary story, actually."

The Clive Barker Interview

By Brett Alexander Savory, IROSF.com, Vol I, No. 8, 21 August 2004

"I just turned in the screenplay for Tortured Souls to Universal. They are reading it right now, and if they like it, hopefully I will direct that myself next year... There's also something to be said for being released from the day-to-day rhythm of writing in the morning and afternoon, having a workout and then going to paint, which is practically my seven-day regime. I don't think it hurts to break that rhythm for a year to make a movie. I want to make a horror movie; I want to make a scary movie; I've never lost my interest in that. And Tortured Souls is a damn good story, so we'll see what Universal thinks."

Clive Barker's Dark Plans

By Joe Nazzaro, www.fangoria.com, 2 December 2004 (note: interview took place in October 2004)

"So... I finish all the drafts for Universal and the people I'm dealing with at Universal are really cool people and one of them says, 'I don't think we're going to make this movie,' and I said, 'OK... Why?' and they said, 'Because I think we're going to have to make another movie with demons in it and we don't want to be making two demon movies...'
"And, you know, I've been this way before, there's no use trying to persuade somebody, I mean a corporate decision is a corporate decision. But what I do have is a lot of people around town who would like to make this movie, so my hope is that between now and Christmas... though Christmas sort of starts early in L.A, it's amazing how it almost seems to slosh together [with Thanksgiving]... There's not going to be any problems heading it up, is my sense, and the work that Universal had me do on the various drafts was work that I am pleased to have done. I mean, sometimes a company, an executive, will push something in a direction that you don't really want it to go and you'll think, 'Shit, this is getting less and less like the picture I want to make,' and luckily that didn't happen. The man we've been dealing with at Universal, his name is Dylan Clarke, is extremely smart and I think respects me and respects the kind of horror I like and all he was eager to do was to get more of that into the movie. So I said - you know, I was very happy to have that happen. I want to make this thing as scary as possible and so all the drafts have done is, I think, upped the scare quotient - it's a very hard R movie, it's not one of these wishy-washy PG13 things. And so, I think the movie's in very good shape, the script is in very good shape and speaks well for itself and I think if people want to make a movie with me right now, that's the movie that's right there on the table. The guys at Universal have treated me extremely well, this is just corporate - Dylan Clarke is an A-OK guy and so is his boss. There are so many other things going on in my life that if for some reason or another Tortured Souls did not happen in the next six months, frankly it wouldn't be the end of the world."

There And Back Again: Touring The Abarat

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 30 November 2004 (note - full text here)

"Well, what happened was [Universal] let it lapse and then a sub-company of theirs called Rogue, which released over here Shaun of The Dead and a bunch of other pictures, is looking at it. With my nose being so much to the grindstone, I'm writing the Hellraiser stuff during the day and at night I am painting Abarats 3 and 4, there isn't another minute during the day to think about anything else at all. My feeling is that if fate wants me to direct a movie it will pick up the phone to me at some point, but am I happy right now doing what I am doing? Blissfully! So you know, let it be what it will be."

The Hellbound Art : Memory, Fantasy And Filigree

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 10 February 2005 (note - full text here)

"Tortured Souls has taken a little bit of a side-step. It's hard to imagine while I'm producing two movies for other directors and producing Demonik and also executive producing Weaveworld how the heck I would be able to do those things respectfully and competently and also go away and do what is essentially a 24 hour-a-day job, which is to direct a movie. It seemed to me that I needed to make a choice and I thought the choices were pretty clear - we've got these movies going, we need them to be wonderful and Joe and Anthony have been amazing and I want to give them as much support as possible. I want Scarlet Gospels to be great and I want the paintings to be great, so it's impossible to say, 'OK, now I'm going to step away from all of this and go do a job which will consume me completely' - but that just doesn't make any sense. I mean it would be lucrative as hell, but that's not the way I look at things or I've ever looked at things and right now I am much more interested in making sure that the next Abarat book is the best it can be and the Scarlet Gospels is the best that it can be."

The Lazarus Muse: Nights Of Magic, Days Of Gore

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 2 June 2005 (note: full text here)

"I want to make Tortured Souls with a hard 'R'. I want it to be a vision of Hell or some other ghastly place of judgement that would be seared into the audience's imagination. I wanted to expand that whole fetishistic, dark, almost priestly world; the old Barker preoccupation with religion and anti-religion. I wanted some dark religious underpinnings to the movies and I'm pretty sure at Universal that didn't go down too well."

Barker's Midnight Meat Train On Track

By Dave Alexander, Rue Morgue, No 47, July 2005

"I don't know whether it'll be on at a major studio. I'm arguing forcibly to go with a couple of smaller companies that want us - doing the picture smaller, and rawer and better. It's frustrating as heck. It was a really good writing experience, but they just called me up and said, 'We can't do it. We've got too many zombie/demon movies.' "

Visions In Paint And Celluloid

By Carnell, Fangoria, No.247, October 2005

"Tortured Souls is on hold right now because there is just too much going on and I know we have another - Universal has [just granted] us another six months to play with it and hopefully somewhere in that time we will get it out into the world."

You Called, He Came...

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 2 and 3 June 2006 (note: full text here)

"We're waiting for a rewrite and we're not going to get a rewrite really fast so - Todd is doing the rewrite, Todd McFarlane, and he has some legal problems which I don't entirely understand... so it hasn't been easy to get him focussed on the rewrite, which I think he could do a nice job with. I think I've got all the pieces in the right order and I think it's time for him to take a tackle at it... I think it'll be a very cool picture and I think - one of the cool things about horror, fantasy, generally is you can, you don't have to be too eager or too impatient - if it's a good story, if it's good shit in some way or other then there's going to be an audience for it. I'm hoping that we can get past the CGI fever to a point here actually you can have actors in costumes - a few zips up the back wouldn't hurt! I see a lot of nodding heads here - are we all CGI'd out? Yeah, yeah, I certainly am and I feel like I would like to go back and I think we'll do Tortured Souls with the minimum of CGI and the maximum of actors doing their thing. There's something soulless about CGI..."

Clive Barker And Simon Bamford Q&A

Moderated by Paul Kane, Informal Q&A Session, FantasyCon, Nottingham, 23 September 2006

"It's out there but I think until Todd gets into a place where he really wants to get into movies it'll sit. But, you know I'm up to my neck in stuff as it is."

Jericho / Hellraiser: Clive Barker Reveals All!

By Mister Disgusting, Bloody Disgusting.com, 7 November 2007

"I think [the Tortured Souls movie]'ll happen probably only when I've got back into the swing of directing. There's a script I like very much. I love the toys. I shouldn't call them 'toys.' What should I call them...? The figures, the sculptures. I think they're beautiful, detailed things. Do I want to see those things walk onto the screen and speak? Damn right I do. So I would like to make sure that happens at some point. But right now we've got a lot of scripts that are already written, and I want to get those out and have people shooting them. But I'm a tenacious son of a bitch, you know - I'm Italian-Irish - and one of these days if it gets done, it gets done. I think what Todd's company did when they created the Tortured Souls stuff was superb, and I think it will be wonderful to see those things breathe and take on life and step onto the screen."

Interview

Conference call reported, (i) by Joseph McCabe as 'Clive Barker On The Next Books Of Blood Movies And Tortured Souls!', FearNet.com, 15 February 2009, (ii) by Brian Gallagher as 'Clive Barker Speaks Out on Midnight Meat Train', Movieweb.com, 16 February 2009, (iii) by Heather Wixson as 'Clive Barker on Hell, Meat & More!', Dread Central.com, 17 February, 2009, (iv) by Jason Coleman as 'Clive Barker: Riding Midnight Meat Train', The 213.net, 17 February, 2009.

"Todd and I talked about [Tortured Souls] repeatedly - we have a great script and it's a more expensive movie than Friday 13th, put it that way. [Live action?] Absolutely, but Todd has always been imaginatively ambitious and so am I and so it stands to reason if you get McFarlane and Barker together it isn't going to be a cheap night at the movies! So I think that the Tortured Souls movie will eventually get made but right now we're finishing work on a movie called Dread..."

Pod of Horror #52

By Mark Justice, Pod of Horror, March 2009 (note: full podcast online at www.horrorworld.org)

Todd McFarlane : "From the first time we met, I knew that we were both kids in grown men's bodies, and that can be trouble - in a good sense. The strength of Clive and his studio and the strength of me and my studio, it's an amalgamation, a hybrid of a bunch of good creative people working together."

Tortured Souls On Screen

By [ ], McFarlane.com, 1 February 2002 (N.B. full text available at www.mcfarlane.com)

Brad Gould (McFarlane staff) : "Todd and Clive Barker were both doing that Hollywood thing earlier in the week, making progress on the Tortured Souls movie. Clive had written up a basic outline containing the major elements he's looking for in a story. A few select writers were then given this outline, and discussed their ideas with Todd, Clive and the studio heads, describing where they would take the story. They were free to use as little or as much of Clive's basic skeleton of a plot as they wanted. They could add or subtract, whatever they want. Then, at the end of it all, Todd, Clive and the execs discussed what they had heard, and will decide which writer they think can handle the story in the best and most creative way.
"It sounds like quite a few really cool sounding ideas were presented. Although there isn't a written plot or script yet, it appears that the story will soon have a definite direction and a basic structure. From what Todd was describing to Drew and me, this is going to be one very interesting and especially creepy movie."

Daily Update

McFarlane message board announcement, (note - online at www.spawn.com) By Brad Gould, 13 September 2002

Hans Rodionoff : "Being a fan of horror movies, I tend to think the less I know about a movie, the better. It tends to take some of the surprise and scare factor out when you know what's gonna come out of the dark at you. There's already such a huge pre-awareness of this project and we've already been given a pretty great window into the movie, just by having the action figures out there. Since everybody's already seen or bought the figures, I don't think I'll be spoiling anything when I say that you're gonna see some of those creatures, and they're gonna scare the crap out of you. One thing is, I think anyone who looks at the figures will immediately think of Hellraiser, I know I did. But after reading Clive's original treatment, I realized that they were moving it into a completely new direction, and that's what got me really excited. So, yes, you will see some of the Tortured Souls big as life and in the rotting flesh. No, this is not going to be a Hellraiser movie."

An Interview With Hans Rodionoff

By Ryan Rotten, Creature Corner, 4 December 2002 (N.B. full text available at www.creaturecorner.com)

Jon Goff (McFarlane staff) : "I can tell you, at this very moment Todd and Terry [Fitzgerald] are going over the first draft of Clive Barker's script for the Tortured Souls film. I don't have any details as far as plot and characters go (it is far too early at this stage to release any detailed information), but as soon as Todd and Terry give their thoughts and suggestions to Clive regarding the story it will be time to hand the script over to the studio for their comments, which brings us one step closer to getting the greenlight for pre-production."

Update - Just Hangin' Around

McFarlane message board announcement, (note - online at www.spawn.com) By Jon Goff, 10 March 2004

Hans Rodionoff : "Late last year, Clive made the decision that he wanted to direct Tortured Souls. I just about fainted. It's such great news. I think fans have been waiting for Clive to get back behind the camera for a long time, and this story is perfect for him. Right now, Clive is tweaking the script. The last I heard, they were getting ready to turn in Clive's draft to the studio in the next few weeks. The basic plot of the movie concerns a man who decides to exchange his wife for a demon. The exchange sends his wife to a place called Primordium, where she must battle her way across a hostile landscape to try and get back home.
"There is a core mythology of Primordium that's built in the novellas. That core mythology is respected and expanded. There are characters from both figure lines in the script. Fans of the action figures can expect to see some familiar faces, but there will also be things that will be new to everyone."

Hans Rodionoff On Man Thing The Movie, The Comic And More

By Dave Richards, Comics2Film, 12 May 2004 (N.B. full text available at www.comics2film.com)

ZOOmbies

...This fully animated film project is based on a new storyline from Clive and has been waiting in the wings since Spring, 2014. October 2015 sees Steven Hoban of Copperheart Entertainment talking to Fangoria about the upcoming feature. After toying with other titles (below) the creators have settled on ZOOmbies...

Steven Hoban (Copperheart Entertainment) : "We've got a big animated feature adaptation of a Clive story called 'Zoombies'; our version is called Night of the Zoombies and it's basically Madagascar meets The Walking Dead. We're very excited about that."

Christmas Horror Story Creator Talks Sequel, Clive Barker Projects, More Ginger Snaps?

By Michael Gingold, Fangoria, 6 October 2015 (note - full text online at www.fangoria.com)

"ZOOmbies... is another project which I just signed a contract on... I think the tone of it is something like ParaNorman, you know that kinda dark, but funny thing? What's weird is, I pitched the thing as I was falling asleep - I was off and I'd completely forgotten about it, but Mark remembered it all, he taped it all and it was there!"

Beautiful Monsters

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 7 October 2015 (note - interview took place 30 May 2014, full text here)

Ben Meares (Seraphim): "There's an animation company that's very, very interested in making a film called ZOOmbies, which is based on an idea that Clive had where a kid is trapped in a zoo during a zombie outbreak - and it's something that I wrote as a two-issue comic just to see if we could do anything with it and we ended up sending it to this company and they went, 'We're very, very interested in it, this is something we want to do' and it will be their first venture into children's movies."

Beautiful Monsters

By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 7 October 2015 (note - interview took place 30 May 2014, full text here)


The Thief of Always

...After the animated, live action, an ILM CGI version and a Kelly Asbury / Fox version all fell by the Hollywood wayside (see 'Films That Got Away...'), the project became stuck in limbo. However, May 2013 saw Clive happy to confirm that Oliver Parker is taking the helm and he quietly continues (January 2019) to work on the project...

"The film is being directed as a live action feature by one of my oldest and most creative friends, Oliver Parker. More news as this project gets underway."

Facebook Updates

By Clive Barker, 9 May 2013

"We are getting closer and closer to a live-action film of The Thief of Always. I'm extremely excited by Oliver Parker's rich and emotional adaptation of the novel, and as Oliver will also be directing it (I'll be around to help on the producing side), I think we have every chance of seeing a beautiful film, true to the book in every way, on the big screen in the next couple of years. As always, I promise to keep you up to date with developments, right here...
"This is NOT a Disney movie. It will be a Barker and Parker film."

Facebook Updates

By Clive Barker, 1 November 2013

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