Widely known as a deeply maligned production, 1996’s Hellraiser: Bloodline was the last theatrical feature in the Clive Barker-originated franchise, and the last to boast its creator’s input, before the ensuing sequels went the direct-to-video route with a number of low budget follow-ups which often suffered from diminishing returns. For years, fans have wished for a director’s cut of Bloodline to crop up and potentially redeem the film’s reputation, hopefully featuring director Kevin Yagher’s original intentions for what had once promised to be an epic, time-hopping tale that could act as a fitting ending for the popular horror series and the iconic villain at its core. Sadly, such a director’s cut has proven to be elusive (and, ultimately, an impossibility – more on that below), leaving the film forever stranded in its butchered, director-disowned Alan Smithee state.
However, the good folks at Encyclopocalypse Publications have given us the next best thing to a director’s cut in the form of writer Peter Atkins’ original Bloodline screenplay. Featuring loads of material that never made it into the finished film, this published script stands as far more cohesive, enthralling material, unencumbered by the studio meddling, slashed budgets, and drastic cuts that hobbled its cinematic take.
Joining us to discuss this release is Mr. Atkins, a writer perhaps best known to genre fans for penning the first two Hellraiser sequels as well, in addition to creating the Wishmaster franchise. During our chat, Mr. Atkins discusses the screenplay’s publication, Bloodline’s notoriously fraught making, and his thoughts on the future of Hellraiser.
Angelique in ‘Hellraiser: Bloodline’
Bloody Disgusting: All these years on, how do you feel about the film, and how did it originally come about?
Peter Atkins: I’m very grateful that some people kind of like the movie, and there are certainly things to like in it. The Angelique design is a fantastic Cenobite design. It’s one of Doug’s great performances, I think. The movie is definitely messed up, and there’s stuff missing that I certainly feel the lack of.
Eventually, nearly everything gets rehabilitated. [For example], time has been very kind to Hellbound. You regularly get these sort of weird fan nerd polls where it’s like, “Which one, Hellraiser or Hellbound?” And Hellbound actually sometimes wins as the favorite Hellraiser movie. But when it came out, we were kind of lambasted. Tony Randel, the director, and me, the writer.
It did fine with the public. It made roughly the same amount of money as Hellraiser did, but the genre fans and the genre press didn’t like it that much. And as I say, time has been forgiving. And then, we did Hellraiser III, and people didn’t like that either. Now they seem to like it. Weirdly, in the last few years … even with Bloodline, I now see people … you know, nobody’s going to go to bat saying, “It’s my favorite Hellraiser movie.”
Well, you know what? Nothing’s impossible. There’s probably a couple of lunatics out there who think it’s their favorite Hellraiser movie. But yeah, things get rehabilitated over time. It’s a nice feeling.
I’d been lucky enough obviously to have become a team member of Hellraiser by the time we were going to do IV, having written II and III. The other thing that had happened was Hellraiser III had technically been an independent production, but the distribution rights were bought by Miramax. Shortly after they bought the distribution rights to III, they made an offer to Larry Kuppins’ Trans Atlantic Pictures, which was the small company that has actually made III.
They made an offer to buy the franchise outright. So Hellraiser IV, as it was then called because we hadn’t come up with any ideas yet, was going to be a true Miramax production. They’d invented this in-house label of Dimension for the release of Hellraiser III and the younger Weinstein brother, Bob Weinstein, was put in charge of Dimension.
So they wanted another one, because the others had made money. The good thing they’d done – and we all know the bad things Harvey has done – but one of the good things they did back then was … Larry Kuppin had never been able to come to financial terms with Clive, so Clive had nothing to do with Hellraiser III. When Miramax came in to distribute, they said, “We need the brand name.” You know, “We want to be able to put ‘Clive Barker Presents’ on this.” So they did come to terms, and we got a “Clive Barker Presents” credit on. So then Clive, thank God, was very much back on board for the origination of number IV.
So when [Clive and I] said, “Okay, what are we going to do with the next one?”, we both assumed it would be the last one. Because we figured, ”Well, you don’t get past IV. We’re lucky to have had three in a franchise.” So we figured, “Well, we’ve got to wrap it up.” Just in conversation – and I was using the term very loosely – I said, “We’ve got to bookend it. We’ve got to bookend the series, the three we did.”
Clive was the one, not me, who said “You’re right! Past, present, future.” I might’ve made a joke at that point. “What? Pinhead in space?” I’m paraphrasing, it’s thirty years, but I think he said something like, “Why not?!” So really, it was like right there and then, we said, “Okay, we’ll do that.”
The only thing I can claim credit for in terms of the origination of the idea is that Clive had thought, “Well, let’s do Victorian London. Let’s do a Jack the Ripper riff for the past, and then do a modern story.” In one of my rare moments of smartness, I said “Well, not Victorian London.” Because Clive had already invented a name and a profession for the creator of the box in his novella, The Hellbound Heart. So I said, “Well, why don’t we make the first one pre-Revolutionary France, and make the throughline the Lemarchand family so that we can follow the fates of the creator of the box?”
Clive, as well as being excellent at his own ideas, is also really good to spot a good idea when somebody else has one. So he said “Sold! That’s it! Let’s tell Miramax.” It really was kind of sweet and simple. I went in and saw Bob Weinstein and basically just pitched that. I think at that point we were using the phrase “the bloodline”. Not necessarily as a title, but to make clear that that’s what the pitch was. It was the bloodline of the toymaker’s family through the ages: pre-Revolutionary France, contemporary America, and … I didn’t say “Pinhead in Space” to Bob Weinstein. It was some piss-elegant version of that. And he said, “Yeah, sounds great,” and commissioned me to write a script. Sometimes, it is as easy as that.
‘Hellraiser’ takes to space in ‘Hellraiser: Bloodline’
BD: So this was kind of crafted to be a finale for the Hellraiser series. Was there any consideration or any plans bandied about for any further follow-ups, like a Hellraiser V and beyond that the original team might’ve considered?
PA: It’s hard to be precise. It was not well and truly meant to be the final word in the sense that Miramax never said to us, “This is it, lads! We’re cutting you off!” Nor did they say “We’ll make a three-picture deal!” You know, they were just going to make this movie. I can’t speak for them. They might well have thought, “Hey, if it’s a cash cow, we’ll make another.” You know, as I said earlier … I think that in Clive’s head, in my head, we just figured, “Well, this is it, right?”
We weren’t consciously killing it in the sense of, “We don’t want to do more.” There was just the sort of assumption that we wouldn’t be doing more. So we did think of it very consciously as the wrap-up. As the end of the toymaker, the end of Pinhead, the final closing of the Lament Configuration.
From this point, everything I’ve said so far has been factual, Jason. This is speculation: if Miramax hadn’t fucked Kevin Yagher over so badly, ripped his budget in half, taken it away from him, driven him to the Alan Smithee credit … if they’d allowed him to direct the movie we all thought we were going to make – and these are all “if’s” – and if that movie had been a bigger hit, there might well have been a theatrical Hellraiser V that might still have involved me and/or Clive.
I mean, all of them did involve Doug. Obviously they kept up through the next six or seven. But what actually happened – and now I’m back to fact, not speculation – is that, whether it was Miramax’s fault or ours (I blame the bizarre cut that Miramax made, the Alan Smithee version), but for whatever reason, it didn’t do as well as the previous ones did. It was poised to do better, because it actually had the best opening weekend of any Hellraiser movie.
In fact, the last friendly gesture … because, you know, Bob Weinstein is one of those guys who, when you make any money, you’re his best friend. The second you’re not, you’re fucking Hitler. The last friendly gesture, they were so pleased with the opening weekend that they took out a full color page ad in Variety. “Biggest Hellraiser opening ever! Thank you, Clive Barker, Peter Atkins…” Obviously, they couldn’t name Kevin because they’d screwed him. But then people actually saw it, and word of mouth came out. It was a profitable movie for them, but … the curve dipped.
Like, Hellraiser did great, then Hellbound did great. Hellraiser III, I think, didn’t make as much money as Hellraiser II, but it had cost less to make. Bloodline…I don’t know the figures, but it didn’t do very well. And they were pissed off with everybody. They blamed everybody except themselves. I remember Bob, literally three inches from Kevin Yagher’s face, screaming “THIS MEANS WAR, MOTHERFUCKER!”
BD: Wow. At what point in the production was it that this confrontation happened?!
PA: They had wrapped and were in post by the time they were screaming at each other. Kevin was doing his assembly. As you know, there was a short reshoot helmed by [Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers director] Joe Chappelle a little later. Then it went back into post, but we were technically in the first wave of postproduction when that memorable moment happened in the Miramax conference room.
I don’t think that was the moment immediately that Kevin quit and said, “I’m taking the Alan Smithee credit and I’m out.” But it can’t have sat well with him, you know?
So, they blamed Kevin. They blamed me. They blamed everybody but themselves, and they went like that. They immediately went non-union and direct to video. The budgets were tiny. So even if we’d wanted to come back…
BD: When did it become apparent to you that the film that you wrote might not closely resemble what the final product was to become?
PA: Well. Sad to say, Jason, but pretty much from Day One. It was weird. They had distributed Hellraiser III, but this was the first low budget horror film that they themselves were making, and they didn’t really know how to do that. They hired a producer … who had really no experience outside of bigger budget movies. So my first sign that we were in trouble … I got a late night phone call from the producer, who personally was a perfectly nice woman, but she called and said, “I’ve just had this thing budgeted!”
Now … what do you mean you’ve just had it budgeted, we’re three weeks from fucking production?! But she had just had it budgeted, and she said, “The special effects alone are going to cost five times the budget of the entire movie!”
And she was mad at me! And I said, as a joke, “What do you mean? Who did you get a quote from, ILM?!” And she said, “Yeah.”
“You don’t use ILM for low budget horror movies! You’ve got Kevin Yagher directing your movie! He’s a prosthetic makeup genius!” And she had no idea. So that was my first sign that we might be in trouble here, because this lady – God bless her – didn’t seem to have a handle on how these things work.
At that stage, I was getting phone calls from Kevin saying, “I’m sorry about this, man, I’m sorry about this.” That would precede a phone call from the producer or a Miramax executive saying, “We’ve got to cut another five pages,” or “We’ve got to lose this scene.” And all the scenes we were losing – obviously, I speak from a biased perspective – but the scenes we were losing were what made the movie good, or potentially good.
So, you know, I tried to be a team player for a while. I think we were a week into production, and I was literally getting daily phone calls from the producer saying, “We’ve got to lose this, we’ve got to lose this, we’ve got to lose this.”
So I quit. I didn’t want to leave Kevin in the lurch, but he understood. This is how long ago all of this was, all of these exchanges happened by fax. I guess e-mail was around, but I resigned by fax because I was getting notes by fax. And I remember sending a fax back that said, “Look, this thing’s fucked. I can’t stop the movie going up in flames, but I can certainly refuse to strike the first match. Goodbye.”
I was a little worried that Clive would be pissed off with me, because technically he was still a producer, and that Kevin would feel betrayed. But in fact, Clive and Clive’s CEO at Seraphim, Anna Miller, both called within five minutes and said “That’s the greatest resignation that I’ve ever seen!”
The thing is, I’m laughing about it now. I was off the hook. My job was done. But I felt terrible for Kevin. I don’t know how or why they couldn’t work their shit out ahead of time, but he had less money than he thought he had to make this movie on a daily basis. And, you know, there are work assemblies going around, people dreaming of a director’s cut surfacing, but it simply will not because the best it could be would be an assembly of the footage that Kevin shot. Which is 90% of the finished movie, but it’s nowhere near 90% of the script, and what would be missing would be all the shit we love. You know, all the fun effects stuff, several major horror sequences. None of that stuff was shot. So that’s partly why I agreed to release the book on the 25th anniversary of the movie, because sadly for horror movie fans, there can never be a director’s cut of Bloodline the way we usually think of as a director’s cut. You know, “The cut they wouldn’t let you see!” That’s not the case. In this instance, unfortunately, it’s just not there.
‘Hellraiser Bloodline’ by Peter Atkins (Encyclopocalypse Publications)
BD: How was it that the idea came about to publish the screenplay?
PA: There’s a feisty little independent publisher called Encyclopocalypse Publications who began as strictly an audio book publisher, but they branched out into paperbacks and eBooks as well. They have a very strong taste for, and a strong line in, movie novelizations, media tie-in books, books about movies, nonfiction books.
They’d done the ebook of my short story collection, Rumors of the Marvelous. We got Doug “Pinhead” Bradley, who was kind enough to narrate the audio book of my novel Morningstar. So I had an existing relationship with them, and they had the bright idea – not me – to novelize Wishmaster, an old movie from 1997. It had never had a novelization, even though novelizations are quite common back then. And I said, “Sure!” They got a guy called Christian Francis, who did a terrific job.
Anyway, having had some success with that, Mark Miller, the CEO of Encyclopocalypse … he too knew the sort of troubled history of Hellraiser IV, and he’d said – I’m putting words in his mouth. I can’t remember exactly what he said – “Do you want to rehabilitate the thing? Do you want us to novelize your screenplay?”
And I said, “Well, you can’t.” Unlike Wishmaster, where I retained literary rights … I should say for the record, all motion pictures are copyrighted to the motion picture company. None of us are pretending that the copyright belongs to us. But, God bless the Writers Guild of America, our union … produced writers of Writers Guild movies have what they call “separation of rights” for certain aspects, which is publication of the script, stage dramatizations … so you have the right to publish a script. With Wishmaster, because it was a complete original, I could also give them my blessing for it to be novelized.
I couldn’t do that with Bloodline, because I’m very glad to say that Clive owns the literary rights because he originated the series. Not with the movie, as most people know, but with the novella The Hellbound Heart. So consequently, the literary rights have always been separate and reserved to him. So I said to Mark, “I can’t do it. I can’t allow another novelization. …you can publish the script if you like?” I assumed he wouldn’t want to. Although, I did make a joke in the text back to him, I said “You can publish the script if you like, but nobody wants to read the script. On the other hand, nobody reads these tie-in books. They just buy them as movie collectibles. So what the fuck? Do it!”
And he took me literally and said, “Okay!” It really was unbelievably quick. I think he’d approached me in late September. Because of course, there wasn’t a novelization process. I just had to go back like four computers to find the file. But the point is, it was there. I had the Bloodline script. So once he said “Yeah,” I took out the script, took out a few exclamation marks, sent it to him and they formatted it. I think from him saying, “Could we do it?” to it being available, it was about three weeks. If only all books could be like that! But it was kind of a fluke.
BD: Well, how does it feel to have your version of the story out there now, widely available after all these years? Surely there must be a feeling of vindication there of some sort?
PA: Well, depends if people like it or not!
People have been very positive in the responses we’ve had so far. I’d also say it’s not like the script wasn’t available, because I’m sure nerds like me – and I’m guessing you – know that scripts are always available. They’ve been up on the gray market online for decades.
But, you’re absolutely right. Seeing it officially in book form, easily and legally available, is kind of terrific. They did a great job with the packaging. It looks good. They kept the script in old school Courier font, which is what scripts should look like, in my aging opinion. Great formatting job, great job with the cover.
I’ve actually been touched, not even in terms of their reactions to the thing when they read it, but just the fact that it exists seems to have delighted people, which is just terrific. It’s great. I actually call my introduction “The Writer’s Cut”. It’s my apology. It’s “Look, you’re not going to get a director’s cut. This is the best we can do.”
This is the script that persuaded Kevin to come on board. This is the script that Miramax greenlit. This is the script that Clive said was the best of the first four Hellraisers. Now…he may have been drunk. So let’s just allow for that, but that phrase did escape his mouth.
But more to the point, this was the movie that Kevin wanted to make. So although you can’t get the director’s cut, this is what the director’s cut would have been.
BD: Now that people are warmly receiving this book, is there any chance that we might get your screenplays for Hellbound: Hellraiser II and Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth in published form as well?
PA: It’s funny, other people have asked that. I would certainly have no objection. I’ll tell you what it is – unlike Bloodline, and unlike a lot of other movies where the screenwriter spends the rest of his or her life bitching about how “They ruined my script!” – from my point of view, at least, those two movies don’t need rehabilitating. The Hellbound that you see, on Blu-ray or on big screen revivals, is to all intents and purposes the Hellbound I wrote. And the Hellraiser III that you see on Blu-ray and the big screen is to all intents and purposes the movie I wrote. So, you know, if people are interested, I would be more than happy. I’d be delighted to put the script out, but there wouldn’t be anything new for people. So that would give me pause.
But again, if people want the handy little rack-size paperback collectibles of the scripts, I’d be happy to do it. I just don’t think there’s anything new to offer in them other than my beautiful phrasing in the action descriptions. Of course, they’d be getting that.
BD: I’m raising my hand. I, for one, would love to have those on my shelf next to The Hellbound Heart, The Scarlet Gospels, and now Hellraiser: Bloodline.
PA: A couple of other people have said that, Jason. It’s really touching, by the way. For all of us. I always talk about this with Doug, the fact that people are remotely fond of shit we did thirty years ago. It’s very heartwarming and comforting to us as we reach our golden years, you know.
Pinhead and his Cenobites from ‘Hellraiser’ (1987)
BD: Looking forward, can I ask – obviously, we have the upcoming Hulu film, and there is the HBO series as well. I was just wondering, do you feel that you have said all you need to with Hellraiser, or do you hope to one day return to the franchise in the future?
PA: Well, I think the pragmatic answer to the question, first, is – they’re not going to ask me. And to be honest, I think I had a really nice crack at it. I loved the movies we made. I love all the people I worked with. You know, I dipped my toe in the universe two other times: I wrote one comic book story for the Epic Comics line back in the early 90s, and I wrote a piece of prose fiction for the Hellbound Hearts anthology that Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane did. So I genuinely don’t think that I have anything to contribute. Let me add, if the series becomes a go and they’re paying people to write episodes, I’ll take the job! But seriously, I would not want to be the relauncher.
I lose track, is David Goyer doing the HBO series?
BD: The Hulu film is coming from David Goyer, Ben Collins, Luke Piotrowski and David Bruckner, while the HBO series is apparently still on its way from David Gordon Green, Michael Dougherty and Mark Verheiden.
PA: I don’t envy them the job! I have my fingers crossed for them, and I hope it’s terrific. I think that the casting [of Jamie Clayton as Pinhead in the Hulu film] … unlike some assholes my age, I am not outraged. I think it sounds extremely intriguing, and extremely in line with the androgynous figure of Clive’s original novella. I’m totally on their side, my fingers are crossed for them.
I wouldn’t like to do it. Like, I don’t know how you relaunch or reimagine – well, I can say it because I didn’t invent it – an iconic franchise. It’s Clive’s iconic franchise, not mine. Relaunching something like that, I don’t know. My head would be stuck in remake territory. So I think I’m probably done. But of course, if they staff up on the series and they’re letting all kinds of assholes write episodes, sure! If the show was more like the first couple of years of the Hellraiser comic book from Epic, sure. It had the broad canvas. It was such a wide range. There was lots of interesting, odd, oblique stuff going on.
If the TV show happens, and if it was like that, I would love to have my phone ring. I doubt it will. I don’t know. I have no specific knowledge of either of the projects. I’m not in any way connected.
BD: In closing, can I ask – what final thoughts you would like to leave Bloody Disgusting readers with in regards to Hellraiser: Bloodline and this newly published edition of your screenplay?
Wow. I haven’t prepared anything pithy! I’m delighted and touched, and I hope people enjoy it. My hope is, especially for the hardcore niche Hellraiser fans who feel something went wrong with Bloodline, hopefully this will be a little gesture of, “Well, you could have had something like this. You might like it, you might not, but here you go.”
My feeling, always, to all horror fans – which is exactly what I was as a kid, as a teenager, and I am now – God bless you all. Keep loving this stuff. Thank you for your interest, thank you for your enthusiasm.
Very special thanks to Peter Atkins for his time and insights.
