Development on TV adaptation of Clive Barker’s Weaveworld starts over

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Six months ago, we shared the news that The CW is working on developing a television series based on HELLRAISER creator Clive Barker's 1987 dark fantasy novel Weaveworld. At the time, writer Jack Kenny was working on turning Barker's tome into a show that would follow what happens when 

an app designer teams up with a young pastry chef who has just discovered that she is destined to be guardian of a mythological realm that can be accessed through a portal in an old Savannah mansion. Together, they fight an epic battle with evil forces who are vying for control of the magical world.

Now Deadline has caught word that Kenny is off the project and The CW will be seeking out a new writer to re-develop the property.

This is just the latest stumble in Weaveworld's long journey to the small screen. The property had previously been set up at Showtime, who put a lot of time into unsuccessfully trying to turn the story into a mini-series. Many wonder if Weaveworld can be cracked for a live adaptation at all, but there's hope that modern special effects technology will make it possible.

Barker's novel

begins with a rug–a wondrous, magnificent rug–into which a world has been woven. It is the world of the Seerkind, a people more ancient than man, who possesses raptures–the power to make magic. In the last century they were hunted down by an unspeakable horror known as the Scourge, and, threatened with annihilation, they worked their strongest raptures to weave themselves and their culture into a rug for safekeeping. Since then, the rug has been guarded by human caretakers.

The last of the caretakers has just died.

Vying for possession of the rug is a spectrum of unforgettable characters: Suzanna, granddaughter of the last caretaker, who feels the pull of the Weaveworld long before she knows the extent of her own powers; Calhoun Mooney, a pigeon-raising clerk who finds the world he's always dreamed of in a fleeting glimpse of the rug; Immacolata, an exiled Seerkind witch intent on destroying her race even if it means calling back the Scourge; and her sidekick, Shadwell, the Salesman, who will sell the Weaveworld to the highest bidder.

In the course of the novel the rug is unwoven, and we travel deep into the glorious raptures of the Weaveworld before we witness the final, cataclysmic struggle for its possession.

Barker will serve as an executive producer on the TV show, along with Angela Mancuso. 

We'll keep you updated as the development and re-development of Weaveworld continues.

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