Based on Clive Barker’s novella The Hellbound Heart, Hellraiser (1987), which Barker also wrote and directed, starred Doug Bradley as Lead Cenobite (now known as Pinhead). Over the years, the franchise has gone on to spawn nine sequels, as well as books and comics. The year before the first film’s release, Barker had signed away the rights to his creation and now, he is now suing to get Hellraiser back.
In September 1986, Barker’s company, Rivdel Limited, transferred copyright over to New World Pictures, which had backed and distributed Hellraiser. The current complaint is against defendants Lawrence L. Kuppin and Park Avenue Entertainment, LLC, which states that on May 3, 1996, “New World Entertainment assigned rights to the Works and/or derivative ‘Hellraiser’ films to Park Avenue Entertainment, L.P., a California limited partnership, owned or controlled by Kuppin.”
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The complaint, which you can read in full here, also goes into the United States Copyright Act of 1976, which states that transfers of copyright taking place after 1977 can be terminated “thirty-five years after the date the subject copyright interests were originally transferred.” For a creator to carry this out, a notice of termination must be served at least two years in advance, but “within the five-year termination window.” Barker did just that on December 18, 2019, which means the termination of the copyright transfer would be effective as of December 19, 2021.
For those keeping up with the Friday the 13th lawsuit, this all seems pretty familiar.
Speaking of Friday the 13th, we would like to thank Larry Zerner (who played Shelly in Friday the 13th Part III) at Zerner Law for getting this news out on Twitter.
It would definitely be interesting and exciting to see what Clive Barker could do with the Hellraiser franchise, and perhaps get it back to its former glory. We will keep you up to date as more news comes out about the lawsuit.
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