Simon Oakes, Vice-Chairman of Exclusive Media and President & CEO of Hammer, announced today the acquisition of the film rights to Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight Gate, the acclaimed novella released under the Arrow Books Hammer imprint from Random House in August 2012.
The acquisition highlights Hammer’s ongoing goal to develop original content for both film and television productions and find projects created by its literary and theatrical deals.
“Set in the early 17th century, The Daylight Gate is based on the Pendle Witch Trial, the most notorious of English witch-trials, and is a tale of magic, superstition, conscience and ruthless murder.”
The novella has received critical acclaim from the likes of The Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, The Observer and the Literary Review amongst others and was a Sunday Times bestseller.
The announcement was made ahead of the Times Cheltenham Literature Festival ‘Hammer: Screen, Page and Beyond’ panel in which Oakes is participating alongside historian and author of ‘The Hammer Vault’, Marcus Hearn, as well as Martyn Waites and Jon Croker, author and screenwriter of another Hammer property, The Woman in Black: Angel of Death respectively, moderated by Empire’s Chris Hewitt.
