Whatever happened to the Hellraiser remake?

[skuts]

A couple of years back there was a lot of buzz that Clive Barker was rebooting the Hellraiser franchise with a new storyline and complete makeover of the Cenobites. It sounds like a winner so what happened to it?

[FatFreddysCat]

It's been tied up in Development Hell ever since. Last I heard they were looking for a new director cuz whoever had been on board decided to bail.

[claws]

It's been tied up in Development Hell ever since. Last I heard they were looking for a new director cuz whoever had been on board decided to bail.

Pretty much the same happen to the Suspiria and The Entity remakes. Two more I was looking forward too for years.

[HappyGilmore]

Not sure what's up with the remake.  However, I did find this trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orWK-QlPSfg

Hellraiser: Revelations.  Apparently it's the ninth film in the series, and they had an incredibly low budget.  So low, in fact, that even though it's part of the previous series, they couldn't even get Doug Bradley to be Pinhead.  Some new guy is playing him.

[FatFreddysCat]

Has that "Revelations" flick officially been released? As I understood it, they had to throw that together mainly so they wouldn't lose their rights to the "Hellraiser" saga by a certain date. Kinda like how Roger Corman's company barfed out that quickie "Fantastic 4" movie back in the 90s, then put it on the shelf.

[HappyGilmore]

Has that "Revelations" flick officially been released? As I understood it, they had to throw that together mainly so they wouldn't lose their rights to the "Hellraiser" saga by a certain date. Kinda like how Roger Corman's company barfed out that quickie "Fantastic 4" movie back in the 90s, then put it on the shelf.

I don't think it was officially released.  Think it played in one theater in like, Arizona for two days at a test screening.  And yeah, they only did it cause the rights were almost out and it needed to be made cause they're still working on the remake.

[Archivist]

How do such arrangements go, that a studio must make a movie within a particular time period to retain hold of the rights to do so?  How does that work, exactly?  I heard that a similar arrangement was in place for the makers of the X-Men movies.

[HappyGilmore]

How do such arrangements go, that a studio must make a movie within a particular time period to retain hold of the rights to do so?  How does that work, exactly?  I heard that a similar arrangement was in place for the makers of the X-Men movies.

Not entirely certain, but this is taken from Wikipedia:
"When producers option a script, they are purchasing the right to buy certain rights to intellectual property. A typical option fee is 10% of the cost of the rights, should the producers manage to secure full financing for their project and have it "greenlit". Because few projects actually manage to be greenlit, options allow producers to reduce their loss in case a project does not come to fruition. Should the project be greenlit, an option provides a legally-binding guarantee to purchase the film rights.

The contract for an option will specify the length of time it is valid for. If the producer cannot have their project greenlit in the specified window of time (e.g. two years), the option will expire. The rights holder can then put the previously-optioned rights up for sale again. Or, the contract may allow the producer to renew the option for a certain price."

My guess is that the rights to the Hellraiser series was about to run out, however, the film studio may have a stipulation in the contract that if a film was made by the end of 2011, they would get to keep said rights for the forseeable future.  Even if the film becomes a straight-to-dvd film, it still falls within the category, since it was a produced film.  Had the film not been made, the holders of the original copyright, I'm guessing Clive Barker and whomever else, could've then shopped the series around to other studios for a higher price.