Written By: Ken HulseySource: WENN
Horror movie icon, Christopher Lee, is set to return to the studio which launched his career. Yes, indeed, Lee is set to return to Hammer Films, the British movie studio who was literally a horror movie making machine in the 1960s and early 1970s.
The last time that Lee starred in a Hammer production was way back in 1976, in the film "To The Devil A Daughter". The film would prove to be the last horror film produced by the studio. Well, until this decade.
In the 2000s, although the company has seemed to be in hibernation, frequent announcements have been made of new projects. In 2003, for example, the studio announced plans to work with Australian company Pictures in Paradise to develop new horror films for the DVD and cinema market.
On May 10, 2007, it was announced that Dutch producer John De Mol had purchased the Hammer Films rights via his private equity firm Cyrte Investments. In addition to holding the rights to over 300 Hammer Films, De Mol's company plans to restart the studio. According to an article in Variety detailing the transaction, the new Hammer Films will be run by former Liberty Global execs Simon Oakes and Marc Schipper. In addition, Guy East and Nigel Sinclair of L.A.-based Spitfire Pictures are on board to produce two to three horror films or thrillers a year for the U.K.-based studio.
The first output under the new owners is Beyond the Rave, a contemporary vampire story which premiered free online exclusively on Myspace in April 2008 as a 20 x 4 min. serial.
The company began shooting for a new horror/thriller film in Donegal in 2008, backed by the Irish Film Board. The film is titled The Wake Wood and is scheduled for release in the United Kingdom in the Autumn of 2009. Hammer has also recently acquired the rights to remake the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In.
Lee is set to star opposite Hilary Swank in the company's latest movie project, The Resident.
Swank plays a doctor who discovers her landlord is her stalker in the film, which will go before cameras, under the direction of Antti Jokinen, in New Mexico in June.
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