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Quint talks with Simon Oakes, the head of Hammer Films, about LET ME IN and much more, including the return of Quatermass!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a brief chat with the new head of Hammer Films, Mr. Simon Oakes. I wish I could sit down with the man for an hour and just discuss the new direction of the company, the return of one of the most famous names in genre filmmaking, but I only got 10 minutes during the hustle and bustle craze of Comic-Con.
When I first heard Hammer was coming back I imagined a direct-to-DVD remake factory and just kind of shrugged. But it appears Hammer’s on track to really live up to its legend. They are making real movies, not just genre schlock (I hope they dive a little into that at some point, though… I mean, what’s Hammer without the red paint?) with real actors and talent behind the camera.
LET ME IN is their flagship title, an English language remake of the brilliant Swedish vampire story LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, but they also have The Resident, which brings Christopher Lee back to Hammer as well as Daniel Radcliffe’s post-Potter film THE WOMAN IN BLACK, being written by KICK-ASS’s Jane Goldman.
At Comic-Con Oakes announced that Hammer will be bringing a couple of their titles out and sprucing them up, including the Quatermass films and The Seven Golden Vampires. That’s an awesome movie, by the way. Seek it out if you haven’t seen it. It’s a Shaw Brothers/Hammer co-production featuring Peter Cushing, Dracula and awesome ‘70s Shaw Bros Kung-Fu!
Anyway, we cover a lot of ground for such a short interview. We start with me gushing over his new announcement about a remake of The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (aka Seven Brothers Meet Dracula). Hope you dig the chat!
Quint: Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires is one of my favorites. It’s just a crazy, ridiculous, fun movie.
Simon Oakes: I know, I know! They were just going “Shit, how do we do this? We’ve got no money! How?” It’s just such a great concept. It’s great.
Quint: That was a Shaw Brothers and Hammer co-production, so you had all the best kung-fu fun of the Shaw Brothers and the horror identity of Hammer… I guess we don’t have a real Shaw Brothers like studio anymore.
Simon Oakes: Not anymore. Also, because the world is different. The guys at Hammer go “We are going to make this film in China. Well, we can’t go there… Hong Kong? Okay, let’s go talk to Run Run Shaw,” you know? It’s like now you just go and do it.
Quint: I know I had some skepticism when I first heard Hammer was coming back just because towards the end of the first run it got really cheap where it just felt like a shadow of what it was before.
Simon Oakes: Sure, I agree.
Quint: And you hear people coming back, I guess because of the cynical nature of fickle fan boys like me who are like “It’s probably somebody who doesn’t understand it, doesn’t respect it, doesn’t know what they’re doing,” but obviously with the stuff that you showed today…. It seems like you are wanting to put your foot forward with something really respectful.
Simon Oakes: We are respectful. We are setting our mark. Look, it’s difficult; first off all you are right… I would say when we started this whole enterprise I started with “Well what won’t I do?” So I’m not going to make gore-nography torture porn… I think frightening films could be done cleverly with no blood at all. Hitchcock was one of the great horror directors you could argue, I mean unbelievable. And JAWS is a monster movie for Christ’s sake!
So once we had established that, then it was a question of saying “If Hammer was alive today and had continued, what would it be like?” It became a little old fashioned by the end and you had all of those urban myth films that came out of the states, like THE OMEN and THE EXORCIST, Hammer looked out of date overnight.
So really it was like “Okay, what would Hammer 2.0 be?” Looked at all of the genres within Hammer and there’s such a rich scene, because you have these mini-Hitchcocks in the late fifties and then you had the classic vampire stuff that Chris(topher Lee) did and then you had the QUATERMASS things with the sci-fi and it was so out there, you know? And then the monster movies and then the walking dead with The Mummy. We started to establish that these were things I could focus on and say “Right, we’ve got to find the right artist, the right writer, the right story, the right filmmakers to fit these different things” and basically LET ME IN… I had read the novel and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN came out at the time when we were thinking about how to approach this particular area in a modern and interesting way. The rest is history.
We were committed to doing this way before the film suddenly became what it is, but we have always had the courage of our convictions, because I always felt “Listen, this was such an amazing book, such an amazing film, such a great story, but it’s still a Swedish vampire story in the Swedish language that it would only get to a limited audience.” It would clearly get to guys like you, but not necessarily to guys like other people in different parts of the world, in America, different parts of the states.
Quint: The mall-goers.
Simon Oakes: The mall guy, yeah. Why not tell that story to them as well? That was really important to us and then THE WOMAN IN BLACK, again, taking a classic ghost story and then having Jane Goldman bring her unique talent to it and say “Right, that book is about less is more, what would it look like? What would happen if the kids were in the marsh? How would they…” So she threw all of her imagination into that, which is great.
Then once we had proven ourselves to be serious about what we are doing and paying homage to the past and not forgetting the legacy, because the legacy is incredibly important with Hammer, then start looking at the back catalog. Then saying “Okay, this is our approach to THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES, what would Quatermass be like today as a chief scientist? Where would he sit in the pantheon of Hammer characters? What would he be doing today?”
Remember THE PIT. We have seen that a million times before, now. It’s been replicated in lots of different films. It’s like “aliens come down, they land in a city, they go out and go ‘this is fucked up,” but now we’ve got a character like Quatermass who is almost like a mixture of Bourne and Dr. Who and Bond. He’s like a guy who is an establishment figure, but he’s always on the outside, because he’s always the person who’s had to go the extra mile to tell it as it is and that was what Nigel Neal… or Tom Kneale, Nigel Kneale was his writing name, that was always his vision. This was a character who is basically an iconoclast, who would say “This is a fucked up situation, we need to do something about it.”
So so far, so good and I know that people were cynical. To me, it was really important to come to Comic Con, really important to come.
Quint: When you have the announcements of getting Daniel Radcliffe in the next movie, that you brought Jane Goldman on to write it, it’s like you are bringing in A listers. It’s clear you’re saying “Oh, we are not going to be the direct to video version of this. We are not going to be the low rent version, we are going to take this stuff seriously.” I think that’s a big thing, but I have to say one of my favorite things, which I only discovered fairly recently, but were the Hammer adventure movies.
Simon Oakes: Yes!
Quint: Especially THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER. The ones with Christopher Lee… That’s something that I love about Hammer and I don’t know if you guys have any plans to try to do a version of this, but I love that they had their cultivated stars. I guess the modern day equivalent is…
Simon Oakes: Judd Apatow maybe with his comedians.
Quint: Judd Apatow with his comedians, Scorsese and DiCaprio and that…
Simon Oakes: We may well do that. I think if I could spend the rest of my life working with Chloe [Moretz] and with Kodi [McPhee], I would be a happy guy… And Richard [Jenkins]… But also one of the things we are doing is we are doing a Hammer Theater of Horror. We are doing live theater.
Quint: Oh really? That’s cool.
Simon Oakes: I feel I can build a repertory company of actors in theater more easily than movies now. In those days you could just do a movie, do a movie, do a movie, and they were under contract. You can’t do that any more, because the agents won’t allow you to do that. I think in theater we can do a lot more of that and we are doing a lot of stuff outside the film stuff to create intellectual property for Hammer, so we are doing a new original theater stuff with Hammer Theater of Horror and new novels with Random House and stuff like that, so yeah I think you can do more with that, but certainly the Hammer heroines… I love the idea of Chloe, I love the idea of Hillary Swank… I like the actors, people like Richard, people like…
Quint: Great character actors. That’s what Hammer was. You have your Peter Cushings and your Christopher Lees…
Simon Oakes: It’s all the other people now… And they were both seriously great actors.
Quint: They were genuine actors.
Simon Oakes: And Chris is still alive and working.
Quint: You got him in one of the movies, don’t you?
Simon Oakes: Yeah, THE RESIDENT. He’s amazing.
Quint: How was that? Bringing Christopher Lee back to Hammer. Was he into it?
Simon Oakes: It was brilliant. He was so into it. Also, I didn’t really overplay that. I said, “Look, read the script Chris and see what you think.” He loved the script, so I said, “Will you do it?” “Yeah, I love what you are doing.” He’s fine. He’s good.
Quint: I was at his wrap party on Lord of the Rings and they cut blooper reel and it was from when he’s impaled on the spike and suddenly just looks at the camera, lifts his head and says “35 years ago, I looked up from this position and saw Peter Cushing, now I look up and see Peter Jackson. Uggghh…”
Simon Oakes: (laughs)
Quint: I think it’s really fascinating that you guys are coming back in such a strong way.
Simon Oakes: Thank you for that and also we need your support and your colleague gave us a great review on LET ME IN and listen, there was a lot of cynicism, you are right. I was just in my tunnel for a year and a half or two years and went “I’m just going to ignore all of this shit and come up with the pictures, come up with the properties, come out with LET ME IN, THE WOMAN IN BLACK and THE RESIDENT…”
I’ve got this fantastic picture called THE QUIET ONES, which is about a group of scientists who create a poltergeist in Cambridge in the early 70’s. Instead of working on DNA, they got them creating a poltergeist. DNA is like easy, they’ve got brains like that, so there are like “We are going to fucking create a poltergeist, that’s just much more interesting.” We’ve got some really great stuff coming up.
Quint: I like hearing that you guys have some original stuff, too, because I think if you were just coming out with just remakes, people wouldn’t be as on board. Speaking for myself I just don’t want to see the studio turn into a remake factory. The old Hammer was guilty of remakes, too, and there were a lot of adaptations with the Poe stories and stuff like that, so there is that kind of precedence, you can revisit older stories…
Simon Oakes: You can revisit older stories, but as long as you have a new take on them, otherwise what’s the point?
I’m posting this from London, which feels oddly serendipitous. Guess the universe has a plan after all!
At the end of the day I’m a big horror fan and if there’s a genre studio out there making quality films that’s something to celebrate. It seems like Hammer is taking all the right steps so far. I hope to bring you more word on their progress as they continue to develop new titles and dust off some classics.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
So once we had established that, then it was a question of saying “If Hammer was alive today and had continued, what would it be like?” It became a little old fashioned by the end and you had all of those urban myth films that came out of the states, like THE OMEN and THE EXORCIST, Hammer looked out of date overnight.
So really it was like “Okay, what would Hammer 2.0 be?” Looked at all of the genres within Hammer and there’s such a rich scene, because you have these mini-Hitchcocks in the late fifties and then you had the classic vampire stuff that Chris(topher Lee) did and then you had the QUATERMASS things with the sci-fi and it was so out there, you know? And then the monster movies and then the walking dead with The Mummy. We started to establish that these were things I could focus on and say “Right, we’ve got to find the right artist, the right writer, the right story, the right filmmakers to fit these different things” and basically LET ME IN… I had read the novel and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN came out at the time when we were thinking about how to approach this particular area in a modern and interesting way. The rest is history.
We were committed to doing this way before the film suddenly became what it is, but we have always had the courage of our convictions, because I always felt “Listen, this was such an amazing book, such an amazing film, such a great story, but it’s still a Swedish vampire story in the Swedish language that it would only get to a limited audience.” It would clearly get to guys like you, but not necessarily to guys like other people in different parts of the world, in America, different parts of the states.
Then once we had proven ourselves to be serious about what we are doing and paying homage to the past and not forgetting the legacy, because the legacy is incredibly important with Hammer, then start looking at the back catalog. Then saying “Okay, this is our approach to THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES, what would Quatermass be like today as a chief scientist? Where would he sit in the pantheon of Hammer characters? What would he be doing today?”
Remember THE PIT. We have seen that a million times before, now. It’s been replicated in lots of different films. It’s like “aliens come down, they land in a city, they go out and go ‘this is fucked up,” but now we’ve got a character like Quatermass who is almost like a mixture of Bourne and Dr. Who and Bond. He’s like a guy who is an establishment figure, but he’s always on the outside, because he’s always the person who’s had to go the extra mile to tell it as it is and that was what Nigel Neal… or Tom Kneale, Nigel Kneale was his writing name, that was always his vision. This was a character who is basically an iconoclast, who would say “This is a fucked up situation, we need to do something about it.”
So so far, so good and I know that people were cynical. To me, it was really important to come to Comic Con, really important to come.
I’ve got this fantastic picture called THE QUIET ONES, which is about a group of scientists who create a poltergeist in Cambridge in the early 70’s. Instead of working on DNA, they got them creating a poltergeist. DNA is like easy, they’ve got brains like that, so there are like “We are going to fucking create a poltergeist, that’s just much more interesting.” We’ve got some really great stuff coming up.
At the end of the day I’m a big horror fan and if there’s a genre studio out there making quality films that’s something to celebrate. It seems like Hammer is taking all the right steps so far. I hope to bring you more word on their progress as they continue to develop new titles and dust off some classics.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
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+ Expand All
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Where can I get one?
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to know Hammer is coming back.
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I have tickets to see Let Me In at TIFF in a week, sadly though, Black Swan is the same night, same time. wish I could be in 2 places at once.
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So they're re-doing a foreign movie. What, never been done before? I'll probably even see it in the theater. And yes, I want new Quatermass films! (And yes, 'The Tommyknockers' is a complete rip-off of 'Quatermass and the Pit').
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No offence sir, but you’re taking a needlessly negative stance based on a number of nostalgias. Calling the new incarnation of Hammer cynical is a little bit shortsighted and unfair. The people behind this venture are fans of Hammer, they are people who loved the studio and the output and are doing their very best to recreate / continue that legacy. I find it very telling and refreshing that they have started with a slate of films that don’t rely on the hits of old – no Dracula, no Frankenstein and no Quatermass.Hammer was never one era – and was far from being a studio that didn’t go down a cynical business route either. You look at Dracula AD 1972, a misguided attempt to jazz up their projects by making it modern and doing it the way that only old men who don’t understand youth cultures can – by making a film that instantly looked dated. I remember going to see this film when I was 19, I am that old, and it was hilarious because it was so outdated and ‘square’. Hammer were a studio that were notorious for casting models that couldn’t act in order to get audiences. What do you see as a Hammer film? Is Dick Barton, Special Agent a Hammer film? Is Mutiny on the Buses a Hammer film? What about Four Sided Triangle? What about The Lady Vanishes? All of which were Hammer films from different ends of the ‘golden years’? Hammer existed for over 40 years and that consisted of different eras. This one, I see as a new one.
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Sep 07, 2010 3:16:52 AM CDT
"we’ve got a character like Quatermass who is almost like a mixt
by jasper stillwell
Don't. You. dare.
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...is what that heading should have said!
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Sep 07, 2010 3:49:44 AM CDT
Do we really need to turn Kneale's Quatermass into an action her
by elgato73
Quatermass is not an action hero nor is he Doctor Who who Nigel Kneale despised because he thought the BBC stole his character and created a hackneyed version. When its all said and done, Quatermass is being done right now by J.J. Abrams in Fringe. Walter Bishop is definitely like the older version of Professor Quatermass from the last television story staring Kneale's character which was simply titled Quatermass (1979). But more to the point, Fringe is the same kind of heavy and hard science fiction that Kneale was known for. Quatermass is an iconoclastic idea man who is always ruffling people's feathers. He does not shoot guns or blow things up. He is a scientist, not a bloody action here.
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You meant to say "repetory", yes? Do you put any value at all in "attention to detail"? I enjoy your contributions to the site more than most of the other "staff", but cripes man, invest a little time in proof reading! The assinine internet perception that spelling, grammar, syntax, etc. don't matter, and that it's all about content, is contributing mightily to the dumbing down of a generation. "Then" for "Than" and vice versa, etc.; it drives me nuts...
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HOWEVER, I'm not sold on theie future. No Cushing, no prime lee, but mainly no Terence Fisher!! That man almost singlehandedly ressurected this studio back 60 years ago almost!!! Never recapture that kinda glory!
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We DO NOT need new Quatermass movies. Quatermass was of its time, beautifully set and placed in post war Britain. A cross between Bourne, Bond and Dr Who????!!!! Give me strength! Does Simon Oakes know ANYTHING about his 'IP's? Professor Bernard Quatermass died in ‘The Quatermass Conclusion’, killed by his creator Nigel Kneale because it was his time. And anyway Quatermass was originally BBC not Hammer who still cocked it up with the first two movies by casting Brian Donlevy as Quatermass. At least Andrew Kier was a Brit. Andre Morell WAS the best Quatermass in the BBC serial of ‘...the Pit’. Why the hell do we have to keep re-inventing stuff, rebooting, re-imagining. How about using IMAGINATION to give us something new?! Rant over...
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He'd be all kinds of awesome - but maybe a bit obvious with the Doctor Who connection.
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Kneale had plans, I don't know how far advanced they were, for a prequel story set not long after WWII where Quatermass met Wernher Von Braun, or at least a fictitious version of him. It would deal with the very early days of The British Rocket Group. I'd be interested in that story.But The Skook is right in that setting Quatermass in modern day would be a pointless thing to do. They would have to be period pieces and they were done so well, even with the miscasting of Brian Donlevey Hammers Quatermass is brilliantly realised and creepy as Hell.It wasn't that long ago when Hammer, pre new takeover, were talking about Quatermass and the Pit being set in New York and starring Sean Connery.
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Sorry, bit of misremembering - the story was set in 1936 and dealt with the German Rocket Programme. A good Quatermass story is the BBC Radio Serial Quatermass Memoirs - really worth listening to.And no to Tennant as Quatermass, he is excellent as an actor but not Quatermass - if they made a prequel set in the 30's the someone like Ioan Gruffud, if older someone like Jim Broadbent or Jim Carter.
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...If you think Quatermass is anything like Bourne or Bond, you can fuck off RIGHT NOW.
Quatermass was an establishment scientist who was ignored by his political superiors - even when his being ignored would lead to earth being threatened with the extinction of humanity. ESPECIALLY in that case. He was the smart guy who discovers something, then realises it's dangerous, only to be ignored by the Government when he tries to warn them. He is the embodiment of the scene with Kevin McCarthy at the end of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, running at the screen shouting "They're here! They're already here!"
He is NOT FUCKING BOURNE OR BOND. If there is ANY free running, of any kind, in a Quatermass movie, then forget about it. It ain't Quatermass, it's a cash-in on the name of a once-awesome franchise.
A new QUATERMASS needs to be like a big-screen X-FILES franchise, with more threat, way more scares - everything from body horror to full-scale clandestine alien invasions - and crucially, Quatermass needs to be the guy who discovers the threat, warns the establishment, doesn't get listened to, saves the day, and then carries on with his work. If he becomes Jason Bourne, FUCK ALL THAT.
This could work, Hammer. Just don't give into that reinvention shit that everyopne else in Hollywood is getting into. Quatermass is just fine as he is, given some extra budget and a big-screen outing - THE QUATERMASS CONCLUSION was just fine when it got remade as TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH. DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING!! -
Sep 07, 2010 6:41:59 AM CDT
Tennant was in the revamped QUATERMASS in 2005...
by spud_mcspud_returns
...BBC3 did a one-off of THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT, filmed live, in 2005. Tennant played Dr Gordon Briscoe, Mark Gatiss played John Paterson, and Jason Flemyng was fairly good as Bernard Quatermass, though they let him down with a ham-fisted denouement. A brave stab at it, though...
elgato73 is absolutely right though - we have the perfect Quatermass onscreen right now, and his name is Walter Bishop. And I think a parallel universe story would have been the perfect next step for Quatermass... -
I want blood dripping walls and monster motorway policemen!!!!!
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...Going on right now:
http://tinyurl.com/332smd7
Support your local Professionals. What don't you fuckin' understand?? -
We need a new series of HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR and HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE. Maybe retitle them both first, though...
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I have a friend who contacted Hammer about a television series that he's been working on. The fella told him that at the moment they were looking primarily at cinema but that television was difinitely in the future.
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As tempted as I am to start squeeing at the prospect of more Hammer TV - especially the idea of QUATERMASS back on our screens!! - I think THE QUATERMASS CONCLUSION is still one of the greatest pieces of dystopian post-apocalyptic British SF TV ever made. I think anything Hammer made for TV these days based on their back catalogue would suffer in comparison.
Besides, Russell T Davies has been ripping off Kneale for years now, and never quite managed to do it justice. Still, if you're going to be a rip-off merchant, at least plagiarise the best... -
I have to agree The Quatermass Conclusion was absolutely gripping, bleak stuff. I must have been 27 or 28 when it came out and I was mesmerised by it - I bought the DVD and it still holds up, very powerful stuff. I do wish that Andrew Keir had played Quatermass, nothing against John Mills I would have just liked a continuity.Doctor Who has been riffing on Quatermass for years - the Daemons, The Seeds of Doom so I suppose that Rusty is just following that grand old tradition. I thought Children of Earth was a nice spin on the Quatermass idea.As for Hammer return to television? Well, they asked my friend to get an agent to submit his story to them and I haven't spoken to him for a while but it was an original horror themed series so it seems they may be looking at broadening out their television outpout and not using any existing licences.
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Do a sequel, not a remake of Captain Kronos. I believe you could move him foreward through time without upsetting continuity but he would then lose his sidekick. I get up this morning and read all this Quatermass love. Warms my heart.
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Hes the right age now. Micheal caine would be goo in that role too. Quatermass has to be a bit of a pain in the ass. Thats his character.
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Seriously cool stuff. Vuy the dvd box set. The stories are still ace!
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Sep 07, 2010 9:06:22 AM CDT
"I don’t want to see Hammer turn into a remake factory"
by scratchmonkey
They built their reputation on remakes, man! You would have never heard of Hammer Productions if they hadn't remade Quatermass and the like.
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Who played the psychologist in Psycho.
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Years ago Dante & Lee talked about a THE DEVIL RIDES OUT remake with Lee reprising his role from the original. I'm normally down on remakes, but I wouldn't mind seeing that finally come together.
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Sep 07, 2010 11:07:54 AM CDT
Are they remaking Five Million Years To Earth?
by marcel_the_negro_projectionist
That movie was the shit! Would love to see that updated and done well without too much CGI intrusion. -
Sep 07, 2010 11:31:34 AM CDT
GREAT interview, Quint! Thank you for writing it!
by the reluctant austinite
I'm about as obsessive a Hammer fan as you'll ever want to meet. I've got every DVD release (and VHS and laserdisc) of the Hammer classics released to date, import CD soundtracks, numerous books on the subject and a Christopher Lee Dracula doll! I understand quite bit of the cynicism and skepticism from the Talkbackers above. It's hard to call something Hammer if you don't see names like Terrence Fischer, Freddie Francis, Michael Ripper, Jimmy Sangster, Michael Carreras, Anthony Hinds, James Bernard, Christpher Lee, Peter Cushing, the wonderful girls of Hammer Glamor, Roy Ashton and Philip Leakey and many others in the credits. Still, I believe there is reason to be hopeful. If "Doctor Who" can continue to please the classic fans as well as gain new fans, then perhaps Hammer can do the same. As an added bonus for classic Hammer fans, this new incarnation will likely open the doors to action figures, video games and other cool collectibles based on the classic films. I wish them the best, and I thank young Quint for taking an interest in this corner of the genre.
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When I first saw Indy and the last Crusade all I cpuld think of afterward was what a great Quatermass Connery would make..The series cries out for a revamp and Sean is the man to do Quatermass
that is if he is still working.. -
place your bets
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...because then they bring the old ones back into print on dvd. So I dont have to fork over $100 for the out of print ones.
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I'd love to see more Kronos adventures as long as they don't get a German actor who is somehow good in every other English speaking film but in Kronos looks as though he has lost three members of his ABBA tribute band.
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him or Scarlet mcBewbs
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This is actually cool news.
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Oddly enough I saw this for the first time last week and it was goddamn insane and very fun. And jeebus, Julie Ege was HAWT. I've been getting back into all the old Hammer stuff recently and forgot how much I'd missed it. The Dracula & Frankenstein stuff, it was good and fun, but when you go off the beaten track into things like Seven Golden Vampires, Plague of the Zombies, The Reptile... you're just blown away by how fun it is.
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Go forth and find us the next INRGID PITT, damnit! Fandom demands it--!
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There is a type of vampire that feeds off of harmony.
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Then you have to go with either Philip Glenister (Gene Hunt from LIFE ON MARS) or Brendan Gleeson. Hammer guys, if you're listening? Quatermass was NOT an action hero... he could do those things, but he was more or less an "asshole scientist with a heart of gold." Imagine combining Teddy Roosevelt and H.G. Wells, and that is Quatermass. And while the other guys were good, Brian Donlevy will always be the Q for that reason; the others kind of blended into the woodwork, whereas Donlevy had the voice and personality that I could see politicians hating him but still doing what he said... when he was in the room. You don't want a milk toast for Quatermass.
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You have to have the mustache.
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Assuming they're going for the classic-type Quatermass (Andrew Keir, in my opinion), the only suitable actors are: Brian Cox, John Rhys-Davies, Robbie Coltrane and Michael Gambon.
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Weren't you one of those that was vocal about a "Let The Right One In" remake being unnecessary?
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is all about the cleavage.
Cleavage and classic monsters. -
As an adult, still good campy fun. This new Hammer studios needs to really up the ante a bit. Think outside the remake box for one thing. There are a zillion great horror novels out there waiting to be raped of their ideas and turned into films by even semi-competent directors. Want do a vampire flick that won't suck (intentional pun so suck on that!)? They Thirst by Robert McCammon. Werewolf movie? Ray Garton's Ravenous featuring lycanthropy spread as a venereal disease. List goes on and on. Take not horror makers, go do some literary homework and make something new. Also, consult Japanese horror fiction 'cause they got demented down pat!
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I am totally of the opinion that a Let the Right One In remake is unnecessary. No matter how good the remake is it won't be able to get me on the same level as the first just because it's not the first time I'm exposed to this story.That said (heh) the more I see of the remake, the more I feel that it's coming from the right place. It's not coming off as a creative cash-in so far and from what I hear from others who have seen it the movie can exist as its own film. I love Howard Hawks' The Thing and John Carpenter's The Thing for different reasons. I love Rio Bravo and Assault on Precinct 13, Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven, etc. Now Let Me In isn't as drastic a remake as those last few examples, I don't think, but if it's a good movie it's a good movie.I guess what I'm saying is it's not a black and white example of a studio taking a title and throwing teenagers listening to iPods in it. If it's as good as I hear it is then a good movie's a good movie.
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Thanks for taking the time to address my post, incidentally.
I'm in the camp that doesn't mind remakes if they're handled well and add something to the story (Insomnia, The Departed). I usually give extra credit to a good remake of a foreign film that audiences might have missed. "Let the Right One In" falls under this catagory IMHO.
Some truly great films have been remakes, so I always dislike the knee-jerk negative reaction folks on the board often have. -
..is WILDLY overrated. come on. The drama is executed on the same level as a Speed Racer cartoon. Spinning cat lady, anyone?????
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Grey-greens everywhere, badly telegraphed "SCREES!", drama connoted by lead actors mumbling or speaking in catchphrases.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsBFWcL6xIE
That is all -
I always thought it could have made a wonderful series where he took the Van Helsing role to the next level going up against a variety of Hammer style monsters (werewolves, Frankenstein style monsters, zombies, Demons etc). Way ahead of his time with the Samurai sword and wry humor.
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...you know it makes sense.
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Yeah,bring back Quatermass,and bring him back now!But please,original stories,not remakes of the old movies.And lets have an older guy as the Prof,not some kid like David Tennant-He was a great Dr Who,but too young for Quatermass.Heres a thought for the Prof,a previous Dr Who-Tom Baker.And wasnt the ending of the 2005 BBC Quatermass crap?The show was pretty good up till that point,creepy and suspenseful,we're all waiting for the monster to be revealed,and-nothing!Turns out some building was possessed by the aliens conciousness/spirit/soul/call-it-what-you-will.What a let down!Mind you,must have saved the Beeb a few bucks on special effects,eh?Not that that was the reason,I bet....Anyway-heres hoping the new hammer dont cut corners/costs in such disastrous fashion.
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Sep 11, 2010 11:37:52 PM CDT
"Swedish language that it would only get to a limited audience.”
by quantize
retarded assumption #1
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Retarded statement #1
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was that it was broadcast live. It was Big Sci-Fi broadcast like it used to be at the start of television. Like the first Quatermass. When there was a bit of a pause at the start of the scene that was because the actors werent sure to starrt yet, There was no CGI giant space monster at the end because those are a bitch to do live.
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It's got everything: a giant hermit crab! A giant scorpion! A killer octopus/jellyfish/diving bell-thingy! Busty babes walking across killer seaweed using helium balloons! The Spanish Inquisition! A tramp steamer filled with barrels of explosive that'll blow up if mixed with sea water! Actually, it doesn't need remaking, I'll just re-watch the original.
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