Todd, Clive Barker talk movie deal
E! News Daily gets inside the minds of McFarlane and Barker

In recent years, the trend has always been to develop a cool movie and then create a bunch of merchandising around it: T-shirts, lunch boxes, posters, costumes, masks, action figures. Well, never being ones for conventional wisdom, Todd McFarlane and Clive Barker turned things around by creating the toys first.

McFarlane Toys released Clive Barker's Tortured Souls action figures in July 2001, which included a six-part original novella of Barker fiction setting up the back story of six characters known as Talisac, Lucidique, Scythe-Meister, Agonistes, Mongroid and Venal Anatomica. Then, last week they sold the movie rights to Universal in a multi-million deal, first announced in the Hollywood Reporter and Variety on Monday.

On Tuesday, E! sat down with both men, each considered veritable masters in the worlds of horror and fantasy. Todd was at the spawn.com headquarters. Barker was in Los Angeles. The segment, which will also include information compiled from the extensive spawn.com feature "Clive Barker's Tortured Souls,"
(http://www.spawn.com/features/torturedsouls/index.html) is scheduled to air during E! News Daily's Fanarchy segment on Thursday, Nov. 15 at 6:30 PM Pacific time. Check local listings. Fanarchy is a new E! News segment that focuses on "genre" entertainment, such as horror and fantasy.

Clive, who is well-known to horror fans for "Hellraiser," and Todd first collaborated to design the Tortured Souls line in 2000. The figures quickly sold out. From the beginning, both creators envisioned this project as a possible movie-in-the-making.

"From the first time we met, I knew that we were both kids in grown men's bodies, and that can be trouble - in a good sense," said McFarlane. "The strength of Clive and his studio and the strength of me and my studio, it's an amalgamation, a hybrid of a bunch of good creative people working together."

The Souls treatment is under development by Clive, who along with Todd will produce the film. Todd McFarlane Entertainment president Terry Fitzgerald and Barker's Seraphim films vice president Joe Daley will co-produce.

There are also many new things on Spawn.com in the News section.

Please check out what's happening at http://www.spawn.com/news.html

One highlight is the new NFL Series 2 Feature:
http://www.spawn.com/news/news011019a.html

Here's some news about Shrek and a store exclusive:
http://www.spawn.com/news/news011102e.html

While you're there, why not check out the new and expanded NHL Series II line:
http://www.spawn.com/news/news011102b.html

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