Movies
Classic Hammer Films Titles Restored For Blu-ray
StudioCanal, Germany’s Anolis Entertainment, U.K. studio facility Pinewood and illuminate Hollywood fka HTV are among the partners coming together to breathe new life into the library of titles from legendary British horror production house and label Hammer, reports THR.
The project aims to bring over 30 movies into HD format for Blu-ray and new media exploitation. The restoration reps substantial investment by Hammer and its key partner StudioCanal.
Hammer, now a part of Exclusive Media, said materials for the project will be provided by Hammer’s original U.S. studio partners including Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures.
Dracula Prince of Darkness will be the first title scheduled for release in the global restoration project and will rollout in the U.K. in conjunction with StudioCanal in March 2012.
Read on to see what other titles are on the slate…More from THR: The partnership continues throughout the spring for the releases of The Reptile and The Plague of The Zombies, and will also include The Devil Rides Out, Rasputin the Mad Monk and The Mummy’s Shroud during the course of the year.
Hammer will also release definitive versions of a trio of famous titles in the U.K.: The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy.
As well as featuring a fully-restored HD picture and restored sound, the re-mastered films will include newly-filmed extras, including interviews with cast members, the partners said.
The documentary extras are being produced by Hammer expert and historian, Marcus Hearn – author of the recent “The Hammer Vault”.
Hammer president and CEO Simon Oakes said: “Our decision to restore some of Hammer’s most famous titles not only allows existing fans to experience the films again in high definition, but also encourages a new global audience to discover Hammer for the first time.”
It comes as Hammer gears up for the release of its latest Hammer project The Woman in Black, starring Daniel Radcliffe.
“We have a busy year ahead but are confident that our Blu-ray plans will ensure that Hammer’s legacy will live on for generations to come,” Oakes said.
Studiocanal U.K. home entertainment general manager U.K. John Rodden said: “The great Hammer films are uniquely stylish and ceaselessly entertaining. Like the vampires and other supernatural forces they depict, they appear to be deathless, re-emerging relentlessly to thrill and terrify new generations of film fans.”
Recent comments from producer Jason Blum suggested that a retool was in order when last year’s The Exorcist: Believer wasn’t as successful as Blumhouse and Universal hoped. That certainly seems to be the case, as Deadline reports tonight that Mike Flanagan is in talks to direct the next Exorcist movie.
Director David Gordon Green was initially on board to direct an entire trilogy of new movies in the franchise, with The Exorcist: Believer intended to be only the first film in that three-film sequel series. Originally set to hit theaters on April 18, 2025, sequel The Exorcist: Deceiver was delayed when Green left the project.
If talks come to fruition, Flanagan will take over, likely steering the franchise in a new direction.
The first film in the trilogy was released theatrically on October 13, 2023, with Leslie Odom Jr. starring alongside a returning Ellen Burstyn from the original classic.
In Believer, “Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.) has raised their daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) on his own.
“But when Angela and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum) disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before.”
The final moments of The Exorcist: Believer brought Linda Blair’s Regan MacNeil back into the fold, seeming to suggest that the legacy character could return in future installments.
As for Flanagan, the horror filmmaker has Life of Chuck on the way. Flanagan previously helmed Stephen King adaptations Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game, and he’s also known for titles including Ouija: Origin of Evil and Oculus, along with the Netflix horror shows The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and The Fall of the House of Usher.
Stay tuned for more as we learn it.
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