Blood: It’s that good red stuff that vampires crave. (Phlebotomists, too.) Few horror authors of the modern generation have had a longer love affair with the Good Red Stuff and its attendant hemoglobins and plasmas than Clive Barker, who made his name on a series of sanguine short story anthologies titled Books Of Blood. Now that series is coming to streaming land, courtesy of long-time Star Trek producer Brannon Braga and his old Orville pal, Seth MacFarlane.
Per Variety, Braga is set to adapt the Books for Hulu, executive producing the film alongside MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door, plus Adam Simon, with whom he also created the equally witchy WGN series Salem. The movie will star Anna Friel as Mary, a “brilliant, beautiful psychologist” who brilliantly and beautifully falls into the orbit of a self-described “ghost whisperer” (Rafi Gavron), who says he can talk to her dead kid. (The names, at least, are lifted from the framing story for the original Books Of Blood.) The show will also star Britt Robertson as a young woman with an abhorrence for sound, and Yul Vazquez as a thief searching for a mysterious book, possibly of blood. (Who can say?)
Books Of Blood has been adapted in bits and pieces many times over the years; Candyman, Midnight Meat Train, Lord Of Illusion, and a film version of Books Of Blood itself have all been hewn from its carcass. This new version is being done as a film, and is aimed at a 2020 release at the streaming service.
13 Comments
“In the Hills, the Cities” plz.
Is there any way to make that without it looking like the weirdest CGI ever put to screen?
How soon we forget Rawhead Rex.
I know Stephen King adaptations run the gamut from great to mediocre to absolutely awful, but how’s Clive Barker’s record on film? Have there been any good films made from his works?
Obviously there’s the Hellraiser series. Only the first two are worth watching though. There’s also Nightbreed adapted from his book Cabal. Thats worth a watch just for the cast alone. Candyman and Lords of Illusion are good though.
NightBreed had some real potential. Cronenburg was awesome as Decker and Craig Sheffer was great too. Just a lot of really great characters overall (including the dude who played Peloquin). The story was incredible but the whole thing suffered from a low budget. It was a great film all things considered tho.
Midnight Meat Train is very well done. It’s my favorite of the Books Of Blood stories and it’s pretty faithful and quite scary. Plus Bradley Cooper up against a stoic but brutal killer in Vinnie Jones. Worth a look for sure.
Candyman is great, and definitely the highwater mark for Barker adaptations. Dread and Lord of Illusions are solid. Midnight Meat Train is pretty good.
Everybody is a streaming show of blood. When you open us, we need to buffer.
I wish I could give multiple likes for that one..
Has anyone ever made a live action Great and Secret Show yet?I dare someone to do a Lix creation scene!
“Books Of Blood has been adapted in bits and pieces many times over the years; Candyman, Midnight Meat Train, Lord Of Illusion, and a film version of Books Of Blood itself have all been hewn from its carcass.”There are also film adaptations of Dread and Rawhead Rex.
This is currently filming about 30 feet from my office.