Hellraiser is about to be reborn on the small screen, as Sonar Entertainment is co-developing a television series with Eric Gardner’s Panacea Ent.
The original Hellraiser films focused on a puzzle box that opens a gateway to the Hell-like realm. The dimension is run by an order of formerly human monsters, who harvest human souls to torture in sadomasochistic experiments, known as Cenobites.
Even if you are unfamiliar with the films, most people would recognize the leader of the Cenobites, Pinhead.
With the popularity of horror and thriller TV shows, including the recent success of American Horror Story and The River, it is no surprise that we would have companies tapping a well known horror franchise and bring it to television. Whether Hellraiser is the right franchise to bring to the small screen is yet to be seen.
“The gap between an O.K. show and a great show is getting bigger and bigger and our obsession going forward will be to find high quality shows that people really want,” said Stewart Till, newly appointed chief executive of Sonar entertainment.”If you look at our slate, you’ll see shows that have either a great brand name like King Tut or Hellraiser that arrive with a recognition, a build-in marketing platform and/or a great writer like MPH with Steven E. De Souza.”
You can’t argue with the logic of utilizing the name recognition of a major film franchise to market your projects, but it doesn’t replace the necessity for quality writing and engaging stories. One can only hope that they utilize the story properly, and not just bank on the good name of the franchise like some of the later sequels did.
Hellraiser is still in early development at this stage, and we will keep you updated as more news becomes available.
