Co-Chairman of Exclusive Media Group (Exclusive), Guy East, and CEO of Hammer Films, Simon Oakes, announced today with President of Alliance Films, Charles Layton, that Exclusive and Alliance will co-finance Hammer’s hotly anticipated new ghost story, The Woman in Black 3D, to be directed by James Watkins. This will be Hammer’s first 3D production. Alliance will also distribute the film in the United Kingdom (Momentum), Spain (Aurum), and Canada (Alliance). Exclusive Film Distribution, headed by Alex Walton, is handling worldwide sales of the title at Cannes.
The Woman in Black 3D is produced by Simon Oakes for Exclusive’s Hammer Films label and Richard Jackson at Talisman Films. Exclusive’s Nigel Sinclair and East are serving as Executive Producers along with Roy Lee for Vertigo Entertainment (The Ring). Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass) is adapting the screenplay based on Susan Hill’s best-selling novel. Production is expected to begin in the fall of 2010.
The Woman in Black follows a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps, who is ordered to travel to a remote village and sort out a recently deceased client’s papers. As he works alone in the client’s isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover tragic secrets, and his unease grows when he glimpses a mysterious woman dressed only in black.
“James Watkins has a huge fanbase from his award-winning suspense horror Eden Lake. Jane Goldman thrilled audiences worldwide with her script for Kick-Ass, and Susan Hill’s extraordinarily chilling novel has won over readers everywhere,” says Simon Oakes.
Guy East continues, “Because of the tremendous pedigree of those involved, the interest in this project has been enormous for us from very early on, and we are now thrilled to have Alliance onboard as a partner. The recent decision to shoot the film in 3D will create a genuinely immersive experience for the audience.”
Charles Layton said, “We are delighted to be co-financing this ambitious 3D Hammer project with Exclusive. It fits in perfectly with our intent to acquire important, commercial films for our three territories. We feel that the subject matter will appeal equally in Spain as it will in the UK and Canada.”
Hill’s novel has become a modern classic, appearing on the national curriculum in the United Kingdom. The Woman in Black was also adapted into a stage play by Stephen Mallatratt, first performed at the Theatre-by-the-Sea in Scarborough, UK, in 1987. It moved to the Fortune Theatre in London’s West End in 1989, where it still successfully runs today, over twenty years later, and has been performed the world over.
Exclusive is currently in post-production on two other genre films: Matt Reeves’ Let Me In starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz, Elias Koteas, and Richard Jenkins (produced through its Hammer Films label, Overture Films will release the film in October, 2010) and Antti Jokinen’s The Resident starring Hilary Swank, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lee Pace, and Christopher Lee (produced through Hammer Films).
9th Fantastic Films Weekend, Friday 4 - Sunday 6 June 2010
National Media Museum, Bradford
www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/fantastic
0870 7010200
The National Media Museum, Bradford, presents the 9th Fantastic Films Weekend (FFW) promising three fear-filled days of thrills and spine-tingling chills for fantasy, horror and sci-fi fans. This year’s Fantastic Films Weekend takes place from Friday 4 – Sunday 6 June.
As part of the weekend the Museum welcomes British directors Stanley Long (Screamtime and cinematographer of The Sorcerers) and Michael Armstrong (The Image starring David Bowie and Mark of the Devil). This year, the weekend also includes a special guest appearance by English screenwriter and FFW patron Jeremy Dyson, best known for his contribution to the well-known British TV series, The League of Gentlemen.
Films screening over the weekend include Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, an exclusive midnight screening of Birdemic: Shock and Terror, a double-bill of horror with 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later and a selection of popular titles from the Museum’s own film archive including Robocop, The Giant Spider Invasion and Patrick.
Stanley Long has worked with the likes of Roman Polanski on Repulsion and with Peter Cushing on The Blood Beast Terror as well as on the 1960s classic The Sorcerers. He co-directed Screamtime with Michael Armstrong. Both British horror features will be screened at the 9th Fantastic Films Weekend; Stanley will also be signing copies of his autobiography X-Rated: Adventures of an Exploitation Filmmaker.
Writer/director Michael Armstrong is best-known for his cult horror films and for providing David Bowie with his screen debut in the short film The Image, which was also Michael’s first film. Michael will be discussing his career in the Museum’s Cubby Broccoli Cinema ahead of a screening of Mark of the Devil. The event starts at 6:15pm on Saturday 5 June. Mark of the Devil is a notorious and long-banned film in which a twisted witch hunter hands out God’s will, punishing an array of innocent women.
Hitchcock fans will be thrilled with the 1960 version of Psycho showing in the Museum’s Pictureville Cinema. This 50th anniversary re-release is a welcome reminder of Alfred Hitchcock’s genius for creating heart-stopping cinema. There will be three separate screenings of the classic thriller during FFW.
Fantastic Films Weekend is proud to announce a special midnight screening of Birdemic: Shock and Terror. Influenced by Hitchcock’s The Birds, Birdemic was first screened at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States and since has played to sell-out theatres across the USA. This amateur but cult film was created on a micro-budget by first time director James Nguyen who has been compared to legendary dud-maker Ed (Plan 9 from Outer Space) Wood.
For those who don’t scare easily, don’t miss the double-bill of shock that will leave viewers hanging on the edge of their seats with Danny Boyle’s zombie chiller 28 Days Later, where animal rights activists storm a laboratory and unwittingly unleash a plague virus that turns humans into mad-eyed, homicidal maniacs. The double-bill continues with 28 Weeks Later, starring Robert Carlyle. This sequel offers cat-and-mouse chases and lashings of gore and blood, definitely not for the faint-hearted.
Once again the National Media Museum has dug deep in its unique film archive and dusted off some blasts from the past that will be showing on the big screen during the weekend. The films include Robocop in which Officer Murphy’s memorable catchphrase “Dead or alive, you’re coming with me” will take fans back to the first time they watched this sci-fi action thriller. Other favorites from the vault include The Giant Spider Invasion, the rarely-seen Three Cases of Murder and Patrick.
Other film highlights from this year’s Fantastic Film Weekend include Plague Town, a film about an American family in search of their roots in Ireland who instead discover a small village with a terrible truth from generations past; Videodrome starring James Woods and eXistenz starring Jude Law. Both films – a David Cronenberg double-bill - are linked to the Immersion exhibition (running in Gallery Two until September 5), in which photographer and video artist Robbie Cooper focuses on our obsession with screen media. Finally, audiences will get the chance to see the sell-out Avatar 3D and Alice in Wonderland 3D on Yorkshire’s only IMAX screen.
For festival passes, day passes or individual tickets visit www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/fantastic or call the NMeM box office on 0870 7010200. Weekend pass £50 (£40 concs), day pass £20 (£15 concs) (passes do not include IMAX titles). 28 Days Later/28 WeeksLater double-bills £10 (£7 concs). Single tickets £6.50 (£4.50 concs), Imax DMR £9 (£7 concs) - FFW pass holders receive £1 discount on IMAX films.
The new British horror-comedy film, Inbred, will be filmed in and around Thirsk this summer ready for a cinema release in 2011, by Midlands-based Split Second Films.Chandon is, apparently, looking for a semi derelict house to film in. You'd've thought he might have found one of those first in the area before announcing his intention to film there, but what do I know?
“In most horror films, especially the ones we make in Britain, you’ve got to have some real bloodstained mess within 10 minutes of the start, or people feel they’re being cheated, right? But their impact is no more horrific than THE WICKER MAN, I’ve been led to believe, and I think this will be the case here.”Now, I'm willing to hope that The Wicker Tree will be at least okay (it can't be worse than the US version of The Wicker Man, can it? Can it?) but I do have to say that ol' Robin does seem a tad out of touch during the interview, and considering he hasn't done a great deal since 1986 when he was involved in The Fantasist, he has good call to be.
