Clive Barker has announced on his official site Revelations, that he's going to write the screenplay for the remake of his classic horror film Hellraiser. That said, he does not want to direct.

The statement comes, very wisely, before it's broken from any other source, and he's addressed it very personally and it seems as though it's an attempt to explain his choice before his fans start asking why.

From Revelations through SplatterFilms:

"I just want to have five minutes to bring you up to date on the Hellraiser situation, so that we don't surprise anybody!

"They're going to remake Hellraiser One with a lot more money and they've invited me to write it – the invitation came from Bob Weinstein – which I am going to do, on the basis that if I don't do it, it will be done in some way that I probably won't like!"

You can see it's written very personally, and the rest of the quote over the page. In it he says some incredibly insightful things about his own feelings for this film and for the remake, and you do get the impression that he's doing this to see what the bigger budget can produce, to complete the story, and also to make sure no one makes it into just another horror film. Imagine Michael Bay getting this one?

Read the rest of his quote over the page:

"It's only that one that I really, really, really care about in terms of its remake value - and it'll be kind of fun to have the extra money to do the effects and all that cool stuff.

"So it puts me in the situation of writing both the beginning and the end of Pinhead at the same time – ‘In my end is my beginning…' I'm not in the middle, as it were, I'm leaving out his middle age, I'm just dealing with his beginning and his end.

"I'm excited about it - actually it'll be kinda cool to revisit it once and see if there are things we can do to it which will make it significantly better.

"I wouldn't wish to direct – I only want to write and be a part of the producing team. I wouldn't want to revisit something that I did as a director, something that I did all those years ago: that would be too, in a way, painful - not painful but weird, difficult, strange…

"I am very happy at the idea of having some more money for the cool stuff – I don't know how much more money, but it's got to be more than the $900,000 that we had the first time!"

I have to say I'm very impressed with what he's saying and you can see why the allure would be so strong to write it and produce it. I think it's also a very wise choice not to direct, that gives him distance, still some control, and it makes sure that he can't mess it up! Not that I'm saying he would, but if it goes wrong the fingers can point somewhere else!

As much as I love that horror film and the way it makes you feel, as well as the spectacular characters in there, I actually would like to see it remade with today's budget and backing, especially now after Barker has endorsed it.

How do you feel about it? Another really bad remake coming, or something a bit more special? Do you even want to pay it any heed because they are touching on a classic?