Today we got the scoop on all things Clive Barker, and many of you will be pleased to see that his BOOKS OF BLOOD series is about to expand. Inside you'll find the latest announcement, along with details on some side projects he's working on.
SpookyDan writes in from this weekend's Fangoria convention where Clive Barker spoke about the upcoming BOOKS OF BLOOD series, making a pretty big announcement.
The first film coming this summer is The Midnight Meat Train (from volume 1). A down-and-out man, Leon Kaufman, falls asleep on a New York subway train, only to wake up at a secret station beyond the end of the line. Kaufman encounters a man named Mahogany, who has killed and butchered several people and hung their bodies up on the train. Mahogany remarks that he will be forced to kill Kaufman to guard his secrets. Kaufman fights Mahogany and kills him in self-defense, but then the train doors open and strange malformed creatures board the train. The creatures eat the dead passengers, then force Kaufman to serve them as their new butcher, cutting out his tongue to ensure his silence. They tell Kaufman that Mahogany was getting old and could not do the job any longer, and that Kaufman now has a new career. It is also revealed that the creatures have also been the secret rulers of New York City for centuries. The police have always covered up for the creatures. Kaufman finds he now has lifetime employment.
The second film, which is the now in post, is The Book of Blood (from volume 1). This is the frame story for the entire Books of Blood series. A psychic researcher, Mary Florescu, has employed a quack medium named Simon McNeal to investigate a haunted house. Alone in an upstairs room, McNeal at first fakes visions, but then the ghosts really do come for him. They attack him and carve words in his flesh, and these words, claims the narrator, form the rest of the stories, stories written on a literal, living Book of Blood.
The third will be Dread, from Anthony DiBlasi (from volume 2). It begins lensing this summer. This was originally set up at 20th Century Fox, but is now being produced by Seraphim Films. In the short story, A young student, Steve, becomes acquainted with an older student named Quaid. Quaid is an intellectual with a morbid fascination with fear. He eventually shows Steve how he, Quaid, kidnapped a vegetarian woman and imprisoned her in a room without any food but for a steak, only releasing her when she finally overcame her dread of eating meat in order to prevent starvation; she eats the meat even though it has spoiled. Steve becomes Quaid's next candidate for his experiments, held captive in a dark, silent room, forcing him to relive a childhood period of deafness that terrified him. Steve is driven insane by this forced sensory deprivation and eventually returns to Quaid's house and butchers him with an axe. Quaid's experiments, all along, were to try to help him understand his own fear of being axed to death by a deadly stalker, but ironically his experiments in phobias made his own come to life.
The fourth will be Pig Blood Blues (from volume 1). A supernatural story set in a borstal. A former policeman named Redman, who starts working there, uncovers a deadly secret and a boy named Lacey is the centre of it. Lacey claims that a missing boy by the name of Henessey is actually there on the grounds of the facility, in the form of a ghost. As Redman unravels the mystery he finds that things are not what they seem and the giant pig in the sty located on the north end of the grounds is actually possessed by the soul of Henessey, who transferred his soul into the pig in order to live forever. "This is the state of the beast. ...to eat and be eaten."
Announced today was Madonna (from volume 5), which is currently being written by producer Jorge Saralegui. A man named Jerry is trying to talk a local shady businessman into financing the redevelopment of an old swimming pool complex. However, the swimming pool has some mysterious inhabitants in the form of nude teenage girls who flee should Jerry or his would-be financial backer encounter them. A swimming pool in the centre is, unlike the other pools in the building, full, and glows with a strange light and appears to be inhabited by some misshapen life-form. Curiosity leads Jerry to return to the place, which somehow causes him to wake up one morning to see that he has been transformed into a woman.
As for HELLRAISER, he stated that it won't be a shot-for-shot remake and that The Scarlet Gospel is his farewell novel to the Hellraiser written works and currently its around 17,000 pages!! But he stopped woking on it to focus on ABARAT.
He also mentioned that WEAVEWORLD is being made as a three part stage play with puppets in Montreal by a company called 6th Hour. It will be running through 2009.
Lastly, Clive mentioned that he's looking to work with Steve Niles and might create a new series with him to eventually adapt to the big screen.
wow. this is really cool. 5 stories from the book being made? Beautiful.
The Hellraiser news is . . .well, I just hope they find a good director. Abarats pretty damn cool. Clive Barker and Steve Niles. . . sounds almost too good to be true.
I read the first volume of Books Of Blood, I can't see how they can make the Meat train story (or the other ones for that matter) last for more than 40 minutes without dragging the plot, it made more sense to me to fuse the first story (the young fake psiquic and the meat train together, but let's see how they fix it...
The Scarlet Gospels, Clive's follow up to the Books of Blood was 1st meant for release in May 2000. So don't hold your breath!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is about time these movies were made, personally im a bit tired of seeing remakes of already excellent horror movies...film makers really should check actual authors for ideas. I recommend checking out the "Tapping the vein" graphic novel based on Clive Barkers Books of Blood, pure awesome doesnt even nail them.
Does anyone think we will see a sequel to Clive Barker's Cabal? Nightbreed was a great movie yet very ahead of its time which is why it flopped...if it was re-released it would probably get a better reception and its potential for sequels is endless given the excellent characters. But thats just me.
I'm SOOOOOOOO glad clive barker is back to making horror movies its about time i cant wait
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The first film coming this summer is 
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