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CONFESSIONS Lost Souls: Let's start. What's your middle name? Clive: I don't have one. My mother has a middle name and my father has one. They hated their middle names. I think the idea was that neither Roy, my brother, nor myself would be given middle names. Given names that could not really readily be corrupted into anything else. Lost Souls: This is from Mike Lee. Are there any projects that Bernard Roseis developing involving any of your material? Clive: For awhile he was talking about doing a version of 'Midnight Meat Train', but then he decided to go and make a movie of Anna Karenina. From 'The Midnight Meat Train' to Anna Karenina in one bound. He made a movie last year called 'Immortal Beloved' which was about the secret mistress of Beethoven. I think it turned him onto the musical thing; it turned him onto musical classical things and the idea of doing something from another period and so on. So he ended up pursuing Anna Karenina. I don't know how far down the line that project is, but I know that's what he's doing right now. Lost Souls: Mike said he's read many interviews with Quentin Terintino where he mentioned you. You wrote the introduction for 'From Dusk till Dawn'. Are there any plans for you to collaborate with him? Clive: We haven't talked about it. Quentin called me up to ask me to do the introduction for 'From Dusk till Dawn', which I was happy to do. A little before Christmas I went up to the editing room to see the movie in it's rough cut, from which I then wrote the introduction. I'm a great admirer of what Quentin does and it's nice to know that Quentin likes what I do. Can you imagine the combination, my god! The most violent movie ever made--Quentin Terintino and Clive Barker! Lost Souls: It might be fun! Clive: It could be fun. Quentin did a collaboration over Christmas called 'Four Room'. He is obviously willing to collaborate, but we haven't talked about the idea. Lost Souls: Is there a release date set for 'Thief of Always'? Clive: No. Long way off is all I know. It's one of those projects that seem to take forever. Lost Souls: What's the status of the BBC 'Weaveworld'? Clive: The BBC/Showtime 'Weaveworld'. A second set of paperwork has been finished and the plan is to go before the camera before the end of the year. I've been frustrated by plans and projections; it's going to be happening this September, it's going to be happening this December, it's going to be happening in the spring. Things like this have been going on for a longtime. I am no longer able to, with any confidence, put my hand on my heart and say well I think it's going to be X or it's going to be Y. I think there's great will to make it happen and I have come to the point where I say it will happen when it happens. Lost Souls: Are there any actors or the director locked up yet? Clive: They have the script. By knowledge I don't think they have a director yet. So many of these things, this early in development can go for such a long time. I was talking to a producer, Hal Liebermann (the producer of Dragonheart). He's not a man I know real well, but I would like to. He told me he'd been in development and producing Dragonheart for seven years. Obviously there were a bunch of other project he was doing in the meantime, but that is a heck of a lot of time to be doing a project. Lost Souls: Have you thought of illustrating your own original comic; maybe a one issue thing? Clive: I have thought a lot about that. It, like a lot of other things in my life, is something of a trade off. How much time do I spend on that by comparison with the time I would spend painting a picture, writing a few paragraphs of a novel or a screenplay or whatever. One of the general rules is that I try to make something, which is going to go to the largest audience that I can deliver to. Books and movies have a huge audience. Now because of the books of the paintings (Illustrators), Morpheus is going to be doing Books of the Painting because of the fact that gallery showing here (in L.A.) have been so well attended. The paintings are getting to a large number of people now. Comics remain a relatively small-scale endeavor in terms of the number of people that read a comic. It would probably take about three months of my time to do a comic, which is the time it took to write 'Thief of Always'. Which do I think I should be doing? Writing another book for kids or doing a comic? I would always choose the book for kids. That's just about trying to get my stories out to the largest number of people. Lost Souls: Have you thought about taking the 'Creepshow' approach to a few of the 'Books of Blood' stories? Clive: Several people have wanted me to do that before. In a sense, 'Hellraiser 4' takes that approach. I think the problem with that for me, as a director, is that I'm not very interested in seeing a movie performed in short stories. I much prefer to one big story. This is because of my feelings of a storyteller, that's me and who I am. I don't discount the idea of doing that in the future though. It's just the question of finding the right producer to come along and I might. Lost Souls: How about writing an original screenplay? Clive: I've just finished one called 'American Primitive'. We'll talk about it later. I would like to direct it some time in the not so distant future. I don't have a time frame for when I would do it, but I would very much like to do it some time soon. Lost Souls: Is the movie the only thing you have in the works right now? Clive: No. I have a new book in the work and another screenplay. I also have a set of painting for publication some time next year. There will bean exhibition in L.A. next spring. 'Forms of Heaven'--the next book of plays is due out in December. We have production of several of the plays from 'Incarnations' already on their way. There is a production of 'Frankenstein in Love’, which opened the beginning of June in San Francisco. In Chicago, 'The History of the Devil' will run for four or five weeks in June. Possibly a production of 'Colossus' in New York next year as well. There are productions of 'Devil' and 'Frankenstein' happening later in the year and some more happening next year across the country. 'Devil' and 'Frankenstein' will run in Houston next year. We have productions in England. Lost Souls: What are the plays in the new book? Clive: The three plays are; Crazy face, Subtle Bodies and Paradise Street. Subtle Bodies, you'll recall is the play that the hotel that turns into a ship in the night and sinks. We are looking several productions of those in the works as well, but I can't be specific about that just yet. Lost Souls: How many plays have you written? Clive: Ten full plays. Only one of which was not performed. All the others saw production. Eventually, hopefully we will publish all of them. Lost Souls: This is from Jack. Is there going to be a comic adaptation for 'Thief of always'? Clive: It's so far down the line. It’s a puzzle. There seems to have been a lot of those of late, so I don't discount the possibilities. Lost Souls: How about artwork for 'Sacrament'? Is there going to be any indifferent editions? Clive: There’s no plan for an illustrated version. Lost Souls: Did you do drawings for the book? Clive: I didn't do any prep drawings. I'm speaking to you as somebody who has read the book already, so you know what it contains. It's not like and doesn't contain the kind of illustratable material that other books have. 'Weaveworld' called for illustrations. You can imagine illustration for 'Imajica', certainly. It doesn't seem to be the case for ‘Sacrament’; it doesn't seem to call for that. I think it has some very visual sequences init, but it feels that I should leave most of it to the audience's imagination. Lost Souls: One last question. Who would you rather be stranded with in a lifeboat? Rush Limbaugh or Newt Gingrich? Clive: It's got to be Newt. Newt is so much more interesting than Rush. Newt is opinionated and bright. Rush is opinionated and stupid. |