Every few years Dimension comes up with a new Hellraiser film to keep their rights to the franchise from falling out of their hands. The last one was Hellraiser: Revelations from 2011, and now it seems another is coming in the form of Hellraiser: Judgment.
The movie will feature Heather Langenkamp who starred as Nancy in the original A Nightmare On Elm Street, and will be directed by Gary Tunnicliffe who’s worked on the effects for the franchise since the third movie.
Unfortunately the film is recasting the role of Pinhead and this is what Tunnicliffe had to say on the matter and Doug Bradley’s distaste for the film –
“I was thrilled and excited to call Doug and let him know I was writing and directing Hellraiser: Judgment, I considered Pinhead HIS role and I was looking forward to working with him and bringing him back to the fans. Legally, we needed a simple non-disclosure agreement signed (very much common place now with production companies) but he immediately balked. I have no idea why, I’ve signed way more binding NDA’s than that myself, most actors and crew on productions of any size usually have to now.
Doug wrote back to me…
‘I’m going to make myself liable for a million bucks I don’t have just to read a damn script?… I don’t think so’
I was stunned, after all it was my ‘damn’ script and it let me know how he felt straight away. I wrote to him saying I was sorry he felt that way and the next day the search for a new Pinhead began.
A few weeks later, we found him: a classically trained stage and film actor who brings a great physical presence and more than a hint of Peter Cushing and Ralph Fiennes. I can’t wait to get him bound in leather, gridded up and in front of the camera and on screens!
This is not a simple recycling of the Hellraiser formula; this is a film that will boast some of the strangest, most bizarre, horrific and thought provoking sequences ever seen in a horror film, a horror film that owes it’s inspiration to the works of Heironymous Bosch, and Francis Bacon as well as Cronenberg, Fincher and Lynch (the David’s, as we nickname the influences here) as well as obviously and foremost Clive Barker.”
And to further reassure audiences, he has this to say:
“To the fans, I would say this… I know you’ve been let down, and trust me, I have too, but simply give me a chance,” he adds. “I know we can NEVER make a film as great as the first two Hellraisers, I wouldn’t even attempt to do so, but I think we have a fun script here an opportunity with an amazing cast and crew to give you all something that feels a little familiar, a little different, completely terrifying and is a worthy part of the Hellraiser Canon… oh and of course if you want blood?… well you’ve got it!”
Whether or not this film is what fans want, it should also be known that Clive Barker is hard at work with writing his own reboot of the franchise…
Source: BloodyDisgusting