Today's Variety reports that Clive Barker and Todd McFarlane have sold the motion picture rights to their Tortured Souls toy line to Universal Pictures.  The six Tortured Souls figures, which debuted at last winter's New York Toy Fair (see 'McFarlane Fields Diverse Lineup, Part I'), were released in July of this year.  Each figure is accompanied by a portion of a novella written by Barker, who is currently writing a film treatment based on the novella.  The Tortured Souls Figures have done extremely well in pop culture stores.  They were the number one selling toy line in ICv2's August Top 10 Cool list and came in at #9 in the September list (see 'Top 10 Cool').  The six grisly figures, which were produced in limited numbers and have received relatively little mass market distribution, are 'sold out' according to Variety.  Unlike the majority of 'action figure lines' the Tortured Souls were clearly aimed at adult collectors and horror fans, not at the typical action figure audience of young boys (see 'Toys For Adults').

Universal, which has had a remarkable year so far thanks to hits like The Mummy Returns and The Fast and the Furious, was traditionally regarded as 'the' horror studio in Hollywood, thanks to the success the studio had with Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, and numerous other classic monster/horror films.  Going back to its roots to reclaim its position as Hollywood's premier producer of horror film makes perfect sense for Universal.  Certainly telling the story of the Tortured Souls characters, Talisac, Lucidique, Scythe-Meister, Agonistes, Mongroid, and Venal Anatomica will involve a level of violence and horror that goes well beyond what was depicted in the classic Universal horror films, but by turning to one of the key literary figures of modern horror literature (Barker) and one of the best contemporary character designers (McFarlane) Universal is assuring itself of a cutting edge production.