Hammer Films Lives Again
Hammer Films is back in action as The Wake Wood begins principal photography this week. It’s the first of three new films from the current owner of the production entity. The original story was conceived by producer Brendan McCarthy who cowrote the screenplay with director David Keating (Where do I Begin?). Shooting will take place in Ireland. Vertigo Films has signed on to distribute the film in the United Kingdom in 2009 with a domestic release to likely follow.
The film stars Timothy Spall, Aidan Gillen and Eva Birthistle about parents who are mourning the loss of their daughter to an attack by a dog. They are suddenly given an opportunity to have three more days with her.
They are also prepping to shoot the English version of the Swedish vampire tale Let the Right One In. Following, according to Variety will be:
“The Resident, a chiller directed by Antti Jokinen (Nightwish: End of an Era) that is described as being in the tradition of The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” according to the trade. “The Quiet Ones is based on the supposedly true story of a group of Canadian hippie scientists in the 1970s who attempt to create a ghost.” No director has been announced for the final film.
Hammer traces its roots back to the 1930s but really stood out in the 1950s with their color-saturated retellings of the classic movie monsters in films usually starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. They also were known for their scream queens such as Ingrid Pitt.
The studio more or less shut down after the 1970s and only now is it being resurrected.
Dutch producer John De Mol purchased the Hammer Films rights in May 2007 and this year merged it with Los Angeles-based Spitfire Pictures.
The new Hammer opened for business with Beyond the Rave, a contemporary vampire tale which ran for twenty chapters, each four minutes long and found on MySpace.
There was once a time when Mel Brooks was considered a pioneer of comedy, a trendsetter in satire, even a spoof master, but if the debut of [[[G4’s Spaceballs: The Animated Series]]], that time has long passed. This was a perfect example of how NOT to reinvent a franchise. It was bound to happen with films being made of Broadway shows and Broadway shows being made of his films that Mel Brooks (who is not only attached as Executive Producer, but also reprises his roles as Scrube and Yogurt) would try to reinvent the [[[Spaceballs]]] film with a poorly produced animated series, but whether it was a lack of his own creativity, or the network’s inane intention to hit a demographic, this show was terrible.
Brett Ratner gets his name attached to a lot of films, some by design and some through association. When he took a meeting Nu Image regarding the Conan the Barbarian film, it was suddenly reported everywhere that Ratner was no attached to the film.
In celebration of it’s 21st birthday, the cast and crew of the popular British scifi comedy Red Dwarf will be coming back to put together four televised specials. They are being made for UKTV’s new free-to-air channel, Dave (interesting name). Series creator Doug Naylor will be taking the helm for the specials and they will go as follows:
Producer John Davis spoke openly about how he’d make a film out of the interactive video game The Sims. At a roundtable interview for his latest film, The Express, Davis expounded on hi splans and forthcoming slate of films. 
Those familiar of Mickey Mouse would usually classify the character as friendly, cheerful, and even funny at times. Well, did you know that he’s also a Soldier of Satan? It also seems that Mickey isn’t held in too-high regard around Saudi Arabia. In a recent interview with Saudi Arabian cleric/diplomat Sheikh Muhammad Munajid he stated that Mickey needs to die. (AP)
So we’re more than half-way through Secret Invasion, the event that’s supposed to be the biggest thing to rock the Marvel Universe since Civil War, where the question was “whose side are you on?” Secret Invasion’s question is “who do you trust?”, which is almost the same question as Civil War’s but not as grammatically correct ( it’s "whom", people!) and concerns the revelation that several Skrulls (shape-shifting aliens who’ve had their asses kicked many times) have secretly been living among us for a while. This story is the brain-child of Brian Michael Bendis, who has been praised for his series Powers and his run on Ultimate Spider-Man and who has been writing New Avengers and Mighty Avengers since both titles were created.
The saga of Tintin continues to unfold as it now appears that Paramount Pictures will cover the $130 budget for the Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson Tintin movie. As reported at 
