Clive Barker files lawsuit to acquire Hellraiser rights

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III actor-turned-entertainment-lawyer Larry Zerner has been our guide through the court battle between FRIDAY THE 13TH director / producer Sean S. Cunningham and screenwriter Victor Miller over the U.S. copyright of the 1980 film, and now he has drawn our attention to another copyright lawsuit involving a popular horror franchise.

Zerner found out that Clive Barker has filed a lawsuit to terminate the 1986 transfer of his rights to HELLRAISER. Copyright law says that the author of an original work can terminate a transfer of rights thirty-five years after the transfer was made, so if a judge rules in Barker's favor in this case that means he will own the rights to the HELLRAISER franchise as of December 19, 2021.

There are currently two separate HELLRAISER projects in the works, projects that Barker is not involved with. Spyglass Media has hired David Bruckner to direct a "loyal, yet evolved" reboot of the film franchise. Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski are writing the screenplay, working from a story by David S. Goyer (who is also producing the reboot with Keith Levine). Meanwhile, HALLOWEEN 2018 director David Gordon Green is attached to direct multiple episodes of a HELLRAISER TV series for HBO. That show is being written by Mark Verheiden and Michael Dougherty. It has been said that the HBO series "is by no means a remake, but rather assumes the past mythology to be a given."

These projects may get rolling before December 19, 2021, but if HBO wants to make seasons of the show beyond that date, or if Spyglass Media wants to make multiple HELLRAISER films, they're going to have to make a deal with Barker. Assuming he does indeed get the rights back.

Interesting note: Barker's termination (if effective) would not take place until December 19, 2021. If the producers can get a new movie out before then, they would be legally in the clear. Just nothing new after that date.

— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) June 15, 2020

Written and directed by Barker, and based on his novella The Hellbound Heart, the original HELLRAISER has the following synopsis: 

From beyond the Outer Darkness. From the blackest corners of a family's past. From the nightmarish realm of the imagination comes Hellraiser. An old family home holds untold mysteries… and horrors for Larry Cotton and his wife, Julia. Floorboards that rattle, rooms that absorb blood. The heavy and haunting air of things long past and better left forgotten. Slowly, the old family home begins to swallow the Cottons. And, there is no escape… for secret alliances and murderous seductions have been made which will propel the Cotton family into the horrifying and shocking conclusion of HELLRAISER.

The film was released in 1987 and has been followed by nine sequels of wildly varying quality. You can watch the first movie HERE.