The TV Series That Got Away...

"I'm doing a pilot for a TV series…the chances are Mick [Garris] and I'll be working on one, maybe two, TV pilots. I would executive produce and again provide the stories. Neither of them are out and out horror; both of them are dark fantasy. It's part of the attempt on my part to get access to a larger audience without watering the material down, without the material becoming bland. "

"Spirit City turned out to be too weird for the sponsors [ABC-TV]. They wanted something a little bit tamer and Mick [Garris] and I felt we couldn't provide that. It was rather off the wall. [The main character is a dead magician] which was probably a bad start as far as ABC were concerned. It's a notion Mick and I will probably run with elsewhere. It's certainly an idea I'm totally committed to, and I think people will have fun with it.
"Mick wrote the pilot with me overseeing its development as I was in the process of finishing off The Great And Secret Show. It's a series of ideas that deserve life in some form or other. I remain cynical about TV's ability to present the kind of material I favour. There are so many creative constraints, so many presumptions TV executives bring to any project about what will or will not work. When you talk to them you know they have a checklist in their heads. They have their sponsors and a rigid sense of what's gone before. They don't have a great enthusiasm for experimentation, for breaking the rules - and I've always been a rule breaker."
Clive Barker - Lord of the Breed
By Philip Nutman, Fangoria, No 91, April 1990 {Note : interview took place in June 1989}

Mick Garris : "All of [the spirits] have to go back to their rightful place or all Hell will literally break loose on Earth. You have a hundred potential episodes with a great deal of diversity. It's such a strong idea I'm surprised no-one has picked up the option."
The Sleeper Awakes
By Philip Nutman, Fear, No 17, May 1990

"I'm now doing some stuff, doing some TV for ABC and probably we're going to do the Books of Blood for HBO as well. The problem with network television, the thing you're faced with all the time - [with] horror on network TV - is that it has to be so mild and my horror fiction is not mild, so we're always dealing with the problem of, again, censorship, I'm afraid."

"There's still the Home Box Office Books of Blood series too..."
In The Heat Of Nightbreed
Set visit by Alan Jones, Starburst, No 133, September 1989

"They're open to a whole range of offbeat ideas and I think it will be a good marriage. "

"My company, which is called Seraphim, is presently developing a whole host of projects for Fox. They are under lock and key at the moment, so I can't share their subject matter with you - but they will be rather dark. "
AOL Appearance
Transcript of on-line appearance, 18 August 1997

"There are long periods when you think nothing is happening and then they want something by next week. We just took in a whole series of proposals to them. All of them have been put into development, which is great. We probably have more stuff in development than another company presently working for Fox. It's a little like juggling. You know those guys spin those plates on sticks? It's almost like Anna, Robb, Joe and myself are running from one stick to the next. I'm learning more and more to delegate from this abundance of work. There's so many parts to these development processes. I can't be there all the time for all this stuff. In this last time of writing this book, it's almost impossible for me to step away from the desk. I have wonderful people working for me and that definitely helps."
Confessions
By [Stephen Dressler and Cheryl Bentzen], Lost Souls, Issue 9, November 1997

"One of our movies of the week is now warming up for production, which is great. The first will be "Silo". Spelling films, with whom we had struck our deal, went bust about three or four weeks after we had done the deal. That meant we had our deal with a company that no longer existed. (Laughs). We had then to look around for a home for our movies, which is what we've been doing. But that was very troubling."
Confessions
By [Stephen Dressler and Cheryl Bentzen], Lost Souls, Issue 10, June 1998

"Silo will go before the cameras later this year [1998]...I am instructed by Fox to keep it under wraps. It's a supernatural horror movie, a scary horror movie. What will be interesting will be to see how much we can slide by, because their only concern was that it might be too intense. But they seem to have got past that now. They want it for summer of next year, so they need to start shooting in the autumn.
"For the Fox material, I wrote 25 page stories which are then turned [into scripts] by writers under our guidance over at Seraphim. So we're just getting this material along."
Lord of New Illusions
By W.C.Stroby, Fangoria, No 175, August 1998

"I had a deal over at Fox television for a while, and though nothing came of that deal in terms of actual programming, we had gotten to the point where they had said to [Seraphim], 'We'd like to be in the business of making movies-of-the-week again.' It turns out they made none of them for anyone. But what it did was cause me to create six stories for that venue. One of them was Saint Sinner, and it existed in this twenty-five page treatment. When we came to talk to the Sci-Fi Channel, it turned out that they really did want to make movies. I said, 'I've got this one that I think is really cool'. It found a life over there."
Clive And Kicking
By Mike Watt, The Dark Side, Issue 101, February/March 2003

Sandy Grushow (president, Twentieth Century Fox) : "Clive has proved himself one of the most talented and successful writers in any medium today, and we look forward to working with him on a wide range of projects."
Barker Banks 20th TV Pact
By [ ], Daily Variety, 24 February 1997

"I'm producing an HBO series with Francis Ford Coppola and that's great... I mean beside the free wine... We got the free wine, yes, it's sitting next door... It's really good, but there's also a thrill value in all of this that I don't discount even as I edge toward 50. I can still be delighted that Francis Ford Coppola was sitting here at this table a week ago. That's just great! The fact he is sitting there in my house, talking about a project I co-created, talking about ' How do I do this?' I mean, this is Francis Ford Coppola, it's too wonderful."

David Goyer : "I have a pilot at HBO with Clive Barker. It's called Shadow House. Clive and I did it with Francis Ford Coppola. We're writing it right now.
"We're trying to see if we can put the HBO spin on it, so it is genre, but what I like about the HBO shows is that they take things in a more intelligent direction. There aren't any special effects in it. It's scary and psychological."
Goyer Goes To The Shadow House
By Arnold T. Blumberg, Cinescape, 18 March 2002

David Goyer : "The HBO deal for Shadow House got scuttled. We couldn't work out an agreement and the project was shelved."
Blade And Beyond
By [ ], SFX, No. 95, September 2002

David Goyer : "I was going to do this drama with Coppola and Clive Barker. They approached me, they said, 'Do you want to do this show with Coppola and Clive Barker?' Yeah! I don't even care what the show is. So they said, 'Okay, well go up to Napa and you'll hang out with them for about a week or whatever' And I'm like, 'I don't care!'
"Because I think there are three reasons why you do any project, and as long as you're clear as to which reason you're doing it for, you're fine. On the one hand, there's money. If you're doing something for money, that's fine, you're a hired gun. If you're doing something because you love the project, then it shouldn't be about the money, you should do it for nothing. And the third reason is, there's just somebody you want to work with that would be an interesting experience. And Clive and Francis are just super-interesting great guys. Clive Barker, what a lot of people don't know, is a hysterical person. He is truly funny.
"The problem with that ultimately was... HBO couldn't come up with an economic model to pay everybody. Ultimately it wasn't worth everybody's time because they couldn't carve up enough of the pie. Looking back, we should've tried to figure something out... I would work with those guys again in a second."
Guest Talk
By David Goyer, Creative Screenwriting Magazine Screenwriting Expo, Los Angeles, 16 November 2002