When we last left the saga of Dimension Films’ struggle to remake the Clive Barker horror classic Hellraiser, the sturio had just hired writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton to take a pass at the screenplay, as they weren’t too happy with the draft turned in by the project’s co-directors, Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury.

Well, it seems that Bustillo and Maury have left the film altogether, as The Hollywood Reporter has announced that French director Pascal Laugier is in negotiations to helm the remake.

This is a dream project for me. I know Clive Barker’s work very well, and I would never betray what he has done. Fans are expecting a definitive Hellraiser, and I don’t want to take that away from them.

Encouraging words from Laugier, if it weren’t for the fact that many already consider Barker’s 1987 movie, adapted from his own short story “The Hell-Bound Heart,” to be fairly definitive in its own right. Still, it should be interesting to see if Laugier incorperates much of the mythology around the Lament Configuration,  infernal puzzle box that summons forth the demonic Cenobite known as Pinhead, that was developed by Hellraiser‘s numerous sequels.

Laugier’s current film, Martyrs, has been sparking much controversy in his home country of France, where it has earned that country’s equivelant of the NC-17 rating for graphic and disturbing violent imagery.

Last month, we told you that Dimension Films’ remake of the Clive Barker horror classic Hellraiser was being pushed to 2009 as the studio wasn’t happy with the script from the project’s co-directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury. Now that the Writers Guild strike is over, the studio has been freed up to farm the project out to a new scribe or scribes.

Bloody Disgusting is reporting that the screenwriting pair of Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton have been tapped to take a pass at the script. Previously the pair has written Feast, last year’s Saw IV and the upcoming Saw V.

The Hellraiser remake is expected to hit screens on January 9, 2009.

It looks like that forthcoming remake of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, may not be as forth coming as thought. The folks over at Bloody Disgusting are reporting that the folks at Dimension film who are producing the movie aren’t particularly thrilled with the script turned in by the project’s directors, the French team of Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury. Dimension now wants to farm the script out to another writer(s), but with the Writer’s Guild strike still ongoing, nothing can be done at this time.

Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, the two French directors behind the recent Franco horror film Inside, have been hired to helm the upcoming remake of Clive Barker’s 1987 classic Hellraiser. Bloody Disgusting reported last week that the pair have signed for the film, which will probably go into production before next year’s possible Director’s Guild strike.

Bustillo and Maury’s Inside played last month at the Toronto International Film Festival to rave reviews. It was picked up for distribution by the Weinstein Company.

Although Barker wrote and directed the original film – which centered on a man trapped in hell whose girlfriend tries to free him by exchanging innocent souls for his – he is only serving as a writer and producer on this version.