DB7

Hammer horror films set to return

Cult Hammer horror films will return to the big screen after the company behind the movies was sold to a group headed by Big Brother creator John de Mol.

At least $50m (£25m) will be spent on new horror films after British company Hammer Film Productions was sold to Dutch consortium Cyrte Investments.

The new owners have also acquired the Hammer group's back catalogue.

It includes almost 300 titles such as the famous Dracula series, which made actor Christopher Lee a household name.

The company was bought for an undisclosed sum.

Other famous Hammer films include The Curse of Frankenstein and The Mummy.

Hammer Horror Classics
The Curse of Frankenstein - 1957
Dracula -1958
The Mummy - 1959
The Brides of Dracula - 1960
The Curse of the Werewolf - 1961

Simon Oakes, head of the management team for the consortium, described Hammer as "a great British brand" and said the group wanted to develop Hammer's "global potential".

The team has plans to target "a new generation of horror lovers" via mobile phones and the internet, he said.

The film company was founded in the 1930s but it was not until the 1950s that its name became synonymous with the horror genre. The company produced other genres including science fiction and comedies.

It is the second time Hammer Film Productions has been sold to private equity investors.

It was bought in February 2000 by a consortium including advertising guru and art collector Charles Saatchi, but no films have been produced since.

julian_craster

House of Hammer rises from the dead

The production company that was a byword in British film-making for decades is going back into business
by Karen McVeigh
Friday May 11, 2007
The Guardian

Unholy lusts, depraved, thrilling passions and unspeakable acts of violence and terror - all in glorious, gothic Technicolor. When the legendary Hammer House of Horror group set out to scare the wits out of people in the 50s, 60s and 70s, it did it in style, leaving one British censor musing: "The curse of this thing is the Technicolor blood: why need vampires be messier eaters than anyone else?"
For three decades, Hammer Film Productions has lain dormant, with fans having to rely on special late night showings at cinemas or the occasional reissue of one of the more popular classics from its prodigious 295-item back catalogue on DVD.

But now the brand that defined the great British film alongside Ealing comedies and James Bond is back in business and plans to make more movies to terrify a new generation of fans.
Responsible for the classic horror series of Dracula, Frankenstein and Quatermass, alongside such gems as Blood from the Mummy's Tomb and the Sweet Scent of Death, the company will repackage some of these old favourites but also plans new productions, inspired by such modern horror movies as the just released 28 Weeks Later.
It is part of the renaissance of British movies that has also seen the revival of the Ealing Studio, which is currently making a new St Trinian's comedy, with Colin Firth and Rupert Everett.
Simon Oakes, chairman and CEO of Hammer Film Productions, said: "For most people, the Hammer group is held in great affection, like Disney. It is steeped in the history of the horror genre and reflects its literature and films. We don't plan to go down the 'gorenography' route of slasher films. What was really important was to get an acquisition together which would get Hammer back in production. We appreciate its legacy and we will be looking at the back catalogue to see what we can reimagine, but we also want to make new films - to redevelop its DNA for the 21st century."
Mr Oakes, formerly of the international cable operator Liberty Global Inc, has brought on board two of the founders of Los Angeles-based Spitfire Pictures, Guy East and Nigel Sinclair, as non-executive directors. Their long list of credits ranges through Sliding Doors, The Quiet American, Iris, and No Direction Home: Bob Dylan. Current projects include the biopic Keith Moon, starring Mike Myers as the Who's drummer.

But Mr Oakes is at pains to stress that the Hammer brand will not lose its British identity. "Being a British company, it's incredibly important to have a good relationship with Hollywood. Successful companies like Working Title have strong distribution links in Hollywood. Spitfire is an LA-based company, but the two UK principals are British. The sensibility of Spitfire is international as well as American, and if I feel that if the things they come up with fit into the Hammer DNA, then we will make it together."

Mr Oakes said he had been looking to break into the horror market for years. He has entered into a "first look" deal with Spitfire which ensures that it comes back with ideas and new writing but that he can simultaneously look elsewhere for ideas. "We want to go out and develop screenplays and find writers too. It is important that it's a British brand, but the most successful British brands are those that travel beyond the shores of Britain."

The resurgence of Hammer comes after it was acquired yesterday for an undisclosed sum by a European consortium headed by Dutch-based Cyrte Investments BV, the investment vehicle of Big Brother creator John de Mol.
Hammer Film Productions was founded in 1949 by William Hinds, a one-time comedian, whose stage name was Will Hammer. The films were initially distributed as Exclusive productions. By the late 50s, the company had hit upon a combination of lavish sets and psychological dramas which provided the Hammer horror ethos.
Between 1953 and 1983, the company was responsible for more than 250 film and television productions. Among them were the movies for which the company is best-known, including The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, To the Devil a Daughter, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb and The Devil Rides Out.
These and others established the careers of a number of stars, notably Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

Despite their popularity, however, the movies were not universally acclaimed.
Audrey Fields, one of the censors given the task of passing X the Unknown for the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) before it went into production, said: "Well, no one can say the customers won't have had their money's worth by now. In fact, someone will almost certainly have been sick. We must have a great deal more restraint, and much more done by onlookers' reactions instead of by shots of 'pulsating obscenity', hideous scars, hideous sightless faces, etc, etc. They must take it away and prune."


Greatest hits

Quatermass Experiment (1955)
Quatermass 2 (1956)
Women Without Men (1956) The Abominable Snowman (1957) The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), starred Peter Cushing as Baron Victor Frankenstein and Christopher Lee as the monster. Dracula (1958), starred Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Christopher Lee as Count Dracula. The Mummy (1959) The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
Sequels to The Curse of Frankenstein (all starred Cushing, except The Horror of Frankenstein, in which Ralph Bates played the title role)
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1959)
The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)
Sequels to Dracula (all starred Christopher Lee, right) Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969) Scars of Dracula (1970) Dracula AD 1972 (1972) The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

DB7

I think the new consortium may be interviewed on CH4 news tonight, but with a budget of £25m they'll only be able to finance about 3 small-scale productions (remakes I presume).

Wolfgang

They should be looking at making films like Saw and Hostel but set in Britain.

silverwhistle

I saw the feature on C4 news. Let's hope for the best! Hammer was fun!

"Trust me, I'm a doctor...!"

DB7

They were talking of 28 Days Later so I presume they're looking at the Severance/Descent/Creep market of low-budget horror as they simply haven't the budget to match Boyle's film. They're also supposed to be in negotiations with a tv station with a view to reviving the Hammer House of Horror series. (hope it's not Five or Sky)

smudge

I see they've already revamped the website.

Smudge

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

DB7

Twice. When I looked this morning there was a large text announcement but it's been replaced by a piece of shockwave.

Lord Brett

I thought the whole point of 28 Days Later was that it was made for tuppence ha'penny on digital video, which might explain its use as a point of reference. Or perhaps it just seemed cheap compared to the absurdly overinflated budgets of most American films.

DB7

Yep, it was about £5m but I'm not sure that DV was anything more than a one-off experiment by Boyle following on from the trio of BBC dramas.

Carmel

I watched the BBC news this morning and they were talking about the Hammer Horror's and they said that they wern't for today's society that people now want more blood gore and harder hitting stories well i disagree. The Hammer's were quant and very low in effects and their budgets were low and they were made in months rather than years and in some cases weeks, but they were enjoyable. We have to much blood gore and real life horrors now on our streets that i think todays films have contributed to this. The Hammer's were innocent and enjoyable and i love them so do my children, so i have to say Hammer's would work very well today as they did 40 years ago. We need something that is creepy and not full of gore and blood.

Hackett

With all the web site's and forums like this I would say there is a very strong market for the Hammer back catalogue. Not just the horror films all thier old thrillers and comadies as well. If they released all on DVD I for one would not mind 1p a disc.

Wolfgang

I don't agree, American cheapo horror has been very popular and profitable recently, that is what current audiences want not Christopher Lee poncing around in his cape. You can't wind it back, that is why Hammer originally went bust because it got left behind. Cheap and nasty, that's how it's got to be.

Carmel

Cheap and nasty is what all these modern horrors have become they wont be remembered as well as the Hammer's which were a bit poncy fair enough but were worth sitting down to watch. We need a bit of a scare and a laugh which is what the Hammer's did but didn't make us physially sick at the gore and blood and guts. Everyone could watch them most were great for a family to watch and we all hid behind cushions at Dracula and Frankenstein growing up. Everyone to their own opinion anyway.

Ted Holmes

I thought Hammer films were regarded as excessively gory in their day? Especially the earlier ones. This was the first time horror had been filmed in colour and it upset people!