CLIVE BARKER Biography - Writers

 
 

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CLIVE BARKER

Name: Clive Barker                                                                         
Born: 5 October 1952                                                                       
                                                                                           
Barker was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Joan Ruby (née Revill), a               
painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for           
an industrial relations firm.[1][2] He studied English and philosophy at                   
Liverpool University. Barker, who is openly gay, lives in Los Angeles,                     
California with his partner of 17 years, photographer David Armstrong and                 
Armstrong's daughter Nicole from a previous relationship.                                 
                                                                                           
Barker is one of the leading authors of contemporary horror/fantasy, writing in           
the horror genre early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories (collected       
in Books of Blood 1 - 6), and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1986).               
Later he moved towards modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements           
in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), the world-spanning                 
Imajica (1991) and Sacrament (1996), bringing in the deeper, richer concepts of           
reality, the nature of the mind and dreams, and the power of words and memories.           
His most recent novel (2007) is Mister B. Gone                                             
                                                                                           
Barker has a keen interest in movie production, although his movies have                   
received varying acclaim. He wrote the screenplays for Underworld (aka                     
Transmutations - 1985) and Rawhead Rex (1986), both directed by George Pavlou             
and matched with little critical success.[3]. Displeased by how his material was           
handled, he moved to directing with Hellraiser (1987), based on his novella The           
Hellbound Heart. His early movies, the shorts The Forbidden and Salome, are               
experimental art movies with surrealist elements, which have been re-released             
together to moderate critical acclaim. After his film Nightbreed (Cabal), which           
was widely considered to be a flop, Barker returned to write and direct Lord of           
Illusions. Barker was an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which           
received major critical acclaim. He had been working on a series of movie                 
adaptations of his The Abarat Quintet books under Disney's management, but has             
admitted that because of creative differences, this project will not now go               
ahead. He is also developing a film based on his Tortured Souls line of toys               
from McFarlane Toys.                                                                       
                                                                                           
In October 2006, Barker announced through his official website that he will be             
writing the script to a forthcoming remake of the original Hellraiser movie.