By Simon Reynolds, Source: Digital Spy UK
Hammer Films CEO Simon Oakes has revealed that the production company is working on a new Dracula movie.
The firm produced nine Dracula features between 1958 and 1974, with Christopher Lee taking on the role of Bram Stoker’s count in seven of the productions.
Speaking to Digital Spy, Oakes revealed that the resurrected Hammer is “looking at the possibility of a contemporary Dracula” as well as a potential Frankenstein movie.
“We can’t really tell you much about it but we really are looking at it,” he said. “I’ve been saying that we’d never remake the films per se, but we would do our own versions of it.
“Certainly in my time with Hammer we will definitely do a Dracula. We will do a Frankenstein if we can find a route in. It’s about finding a route in that makes it your film.
“There’s a number of Draculas going on at the moment – there’s a Vlad the Impaler film, a few other ones around, but we have a sense of what we’d like to do. It will be a London-based Dracula.”
Asked if Hammer had any filmmakers in mind to revamp Dracula, Oakes replied: “We do, but we can’t really say right now. My PR people are shaking their heads! I can not tell you. Just watch this space, we will be coming up with something relatively soon.”
Hammer is also in early pre-production on The Quiet Ones, which will be written by Oscar-nominated The Messenger and Rampart director Oren Moverman.
“It’s a poltergeist movie based on a true story set in a university campus… It’s a well-constructed story, very visceral in its scares but fundamentally what’s behind it is incredible characters. That’s the next Hammer film,” he said.
Oaked added that Hammer is hoping to launch a series based on Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker novel.
“It’s a steampunk novel set in 1860s Seattle,” he said. “We think it’s a potential franchise for us, but we say that with dread. If you make the first one and it doesn’t work, we know that there goes our franchise. Cherie is writing a series of novels and the first one is fantastic.”
Hammer’s latest offering The Woman in Black, starring Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe, is out in the US now and debuts in UK cinemas on February 10.
