The new Hellraiser film is in the can. So where the hell is it?

Something strange is going on with many of the big franchises at the moment. New installments in the Amityville Horror, Hellraiser, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchises are all ready to go but keep getting shelved, and as we learned yesterday, Paramount just gave the axe to the not-yet-shot Friday the 13th reboot. Remember when new sequels came out nearly every year?!

Today we’ve at least got a wee bit of an update on Hellraiser: Judgment from writer/director Gary J. Tunnicliffe, which comes to us courtesy of an interview he just did with the podcast 60 Minutes With. Tunnicliffe, the franchise’s longtime makeup artist, was very open and honest about his struggles to get Judgment made (yes, it’s another we-need-to-obtain-the-rights sequel from Dimension Films, but Tunnicliffe seems to have genuine passion for the project), and he even delved deep into the real story behind Doug Bradley’s lack of involvement in the film.

It’s a great interview worth listening to the entirety of, so we encourage you to do that if you’re a fan of the Hellraiser franchise. But what about the film’s release date? What’s going on with all that? During the chat, Tunnicliffe talked a bit about the current release status of the film, revealing that he’s heard rumblings of Dimension putting it into limited theaters at some point.

Said Tunnicliffe:

All I can say is, the movie is finished. It’s edited – got sound and music, and it’s all done. There’s a trailer, which I just saw. There’s a poster, which is really fucking cool. It’s utterly brilliant. I hope to god they use it. It’s not a big Photoshop thing, it’s like a Drew Struzan picture. It’s lovely. But apparently they did see it and think, ‘We may do a limited theatrical on it.’ But I don’t know. They will release it when they see fit. It could be soon, it could be later. It could be theatrical, it could not be. I’m sure I’ll be the last to know.

Paul T. Taylor takes over the role of Pinhead in Hellraiser: Judgment.

In the new sequel…

Detectives Sean and David Carter are on the case to find a gruesome serial killer terrorizing the city. Joining forces with Detective Christine Egerton, they dig deeper into a spiraling maze of horror that may not be of this world. Could the Judgment awaiting the killer’s victims also be waiting for Sean?

The film also stars A Nightmare On Elm Street‘s Heather Langenkamp, along with Damon Carney, Randy Wayne, Alexandra Harris, John Gulagher, Mike Jay Regan, Diane Goldner, Andi Powers, Jeff Fenter, Helena Grace Donald, and Grace Montie (read about their roles).