Hellraising the children

The writer of Hellraiser - and veteran of more than 20 horror movies - is moving to children's cinema.

17:27 07 September 2004

The writer of Hellraiser - and veteran of more than 20 horror movies - is moving to children's cinema.

While Clive Barker is set for another Hollywood adaptation of his latest literary work, he is apparently poised to turn his back on the style that has brought with it such commercial success.

The man behind the Candyman and Hellraiser series has reportedly sold the rights to his Abarat novels to kiddies favourite Disney for a healthy $8 million fee.

The Abarat tells the story of heroine Candy Quackenbush from Chickentown, Minnesota, who is mysteriously transported to the magical archipelago of Abarat. Here each of the islands represent a different hour of the day and is characterised by that time of day.

John Harrison, most famous for his screenwriting credits on the Dune miniseries, is understood to be handling the adaptation of this, Barker's lightest work to date.

Abarat boasts some truly imaginative characters that will appeal to sprogs the world over, with John Mischief, the eight-headed master criminal and Christopher Carrion, the Lord of Midnight to name but a few, film magazine Empire reports.

The book spent several weeks at the top of the New York Times best seller list in 2002 and producers will be hoping it fantastical content will see the film version echo the success of recent children's films like Shrek and Harry Potter.