'Hellraiser' TV Show Coming to HBO

Pinhead is coming to the small screen. HBO is developing a Hellraiser series, based on the horror franchise of the same name. David Gordon Green, who directed the re-imagining of Halloween in 2018, will direct a number of episodes, including the pilot, according to Deadline.

The upcoming Hellraiser series is aiming to both elevate and expand on the story's current mythology, which is now up to 10 feature films. Pinhead will be the main character, and will still be the leader of the Cenobites, a group of humans who were turned into demons and live in an extra-dimensional realm. The puzzle box, known as the Lament Configuration, will also factor in as a likely MacGuffin, which calls the Cenobites into this world. Once here, Pinhead and his minions work to harvest human souls in order to keep the balance between good and evil intact.

Based on Clive Barker's 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart, the first Hellraiser film came out back in 1987, with Barker himself writing and directing. Nine sequels would follow, most recently with 2018's Hellraiser: Judgment. The show's writing team will include Mark Verheiden (Daredevil, Battlestar Gallactica) and Michael Dougherty (Trick 'r' Treat, King of the Monsters). Along with Hellraiser, Green is still slated to direct both sequels to Halloween, Halloween Kills, which is currently in post-production, and Halloween Ends.

HBO, meanwhile, is still launching its new streaming platform, HBO Max, on May 27. The service will include all of HBO's content, which can also be found on HBO Go and HBO Now, as well as numerous other choices, ranging from the Studio Ghibli films and the entire Friends catalog. It'll also be home to the official Friends reunion, though that's been put on hold due to concerns over coronavirus. The service is already available for Comcast customers.

The circumstances resulting from coronavirus also inspired the premium network also put roughly 500 hours of content available online for free. Designed to help keep people at home to further slow the spread. Along with original series like The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, it offered a number of original documentaries as well as blockbuster films currently part of its rotating library.

At this point, it's unclear when Hellraiser will begin production, as much of the entertainment industry has been on lockdown due to coronavirus. There's also a planned movie reboot of the franchise being planned, though it won't have anything to do with the series.