Clive Barker is resurrecting "Hellraiser" at Dimension, writing and producing a remake of the 1980s horror pic.
Barker will not helm the new pic as he did the original; a director has not yet been announced. Anthony Diblasi and Joe Daley will co-produce, while Richard Saperstein and Matthew Stein will oversee for Dimension.
Also on Wednesday, Barker's "Midnight Train" project, which Lakeshore and Lionsgate are producing, attached Asian horror director Ryuhei Kitamura.
Helmer replaces Patrick Tatopoulos. Shooting is set to begin this winter. "Midnight Train" is based on the Barker short story "Midnight Meat Train," published in his popular "Books of Blood" series.
Original 1987 "Hellraiser" focused on the relationship between a dead man named Frank Cotton and his lover Julia Cotton, whom he attempts to induce into committing murder so he can be rescued from hell.
It also featured the disturbing character of Pinhead, a man with pins driven through his skull.
British production, which Barker adapted and directed from his own novella, earned $15 million in the U.S. It spawned a number of sequels, many of which Barker was not involved with and has disavowed.
Barker said he would work to update the pic. "There are some areas of the first movie where I think we can be a lot more intense and a lot more scary," he said. "It will not be simply a reworking or reshooting of the first picture."
Barker also said that he hoped the increased budget would allow for more special effects. Original was made for less than $1 million.
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com