Horror Screenwriting Duo to Raise Hellraiser

Saw 4 and Saw 5 screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan will hammer out the script for the upcoming Dimension Films remake of Hellraiser.

Variety reports that the writers' salaries will be in the "high six figures for the job," and it may actually be money well spent. Directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo will begin shooting their remake of the 21-year-old film this spring, giving Melton and Dunstan at best about three months to get a script in shape.

Of course, since it is a remake, there might not be too many sleepless nights putting the screenplay together, but Dimension clearly has faith in the team of writers because they'll have to finish the Hellraiser script while working on the studio's Midnight Man, which the pair wrote and which Dunstan is currently directing.

You haven't heard as much about the rebirth of this franchise as you have the upcoming Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street remakes, and I think that might actually be good for business.

Twenty years ago, there were no horror movies like Hellraiser, which went into darker recesses of your imagination than any knife-thrusting masked man ever could, and while it may have been a little too out there for audiences in the 80s - and I say that fully aware of how much money the first couple movies in the series made - I think now it could really be a home run. In any case, a remake might serve this franchise better because the action was much more about the visual component in Hellraiser than in its contemporaries.

News of the remake steamrolling into production stands in contrast to the frustration expressed by original Hellraiser director and the remake's producer, Clive Barker, who said in August, "I have waited for a long time to see somebody give me a clue...Nobody seems to know and I’m not going to hold my breath while I wait..."