Patrick Lussier Talks the Hellraiser that Could Have Been
Steve Barton
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Recently on Adam Green and Joe Lynch’s podcast “The Movie Crypt,” the duo interviewed Patrick Lussier, who was originally up to direct a new version of Hellraiser for the Weinsteins that he had written with longtime collaborator Todd Farmer.
“We wanted to make another movie with [William] Fichtner [from Drive Angry]. Imagine two posters… Imagine Bill Fichtner on one in black combat gear, like tactical gear… He’s got a gun in his hand and he’s got three big fuckin’ nails hammered into his forehead that are dripping blood and he’s holding something in his hand, and the poster just says, ‘Rabbit.’ Then [for the second poster, it would be Fichtner’s] hand and he’s holding the box and the [poster would read], ‘Rabbit Hole,’ and that’s it.”
“The idea essentially was that we never see the story of Frank getting the box. So imagine if Frank is actually the darkest version of [“24’s”] Jack Bauer and [the] Nicolas Cage [character] from National Treasure. It would have been the evil National Treasure story.”
“In the beginning [Frank] is going to get the box, and he’s in Shanghai. He gets caught and they [the captors] hold him down and they hammer these fucking nails into his head, but he gets free and kills everyone. But he does get the box which is being held by this guy who looks like he’s all bloated and has been ripped apart by the Cenobites. Frank steals the box and then… bad things happen.”
In the film Fichtner’s character of Frank would have eventually become Pinhead. The poster idea is what got co-writer Todd Farmer and Lussier in the door with the Weinsteins.
Other tidbits:
- Clive Barker was never involved.
- Three versions of the film were developed that weren’t like the one Farmer and Lussier originally pitched.
- There was one version that featured Doug Bradley in it, but he didn’t show up until the end.
- There were Cenobites in every version developed.
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