Tasked with the job of resurrecting the Hammer label after a 34 year hiatus is no mean feat. But for CEO
Simon Oakes it is a matter of imaginatively re-tooling established 'horror' titles like 2008's
'Let The Right One In' and the haunting British stage play
'The Woman In Black' along with developing new material that harks back to the old Hammer tradition, such as psychological chiller
'The Resident' and the 'Wicker Man' inspired
'The Wake Wood'. I caught up with Mr Oakes at his offices in London, an attempt to find out how he intends to engage new horror audiences, what other films we might expect from new Hammer and whether they would retain the traditional flavour and if he intends to re-visit some of the beloved classics from their famous canon. We also discussed the forthcoming new Hammer Productions' cinematic debut release
'Let Me In' and his reasons behind bringing back a certain Hammer veteran...
OP: What were some of the challenges involved in bringing back Hammer after a long hiatus and for a new horror audience?SO: Well I guess the first thing is that there's a sort of love affair with Hammer. A nostalgic love affair with Hammer for what it represented and I think that's great and that's why we bought the label and wanted to re-position and reboot it for now. But at the same time we had to honour that and we have done that I think by looking at some of the genres that Hammer was involved in whether it be sci-fi, vampirism, Dracula films, ghost stories, psychological thrillers and so we thought ok - we will honour that tradition in some of the type of films we will make, but at the same time I remember being asked very early on 'are you going to remake the old Hammer films?' and it was like 'well no' because there's no audience for those films anymore I mean why would there be? And so there was a lot of this sort of tension and you know we would rather, being very British, we would rather sort of leave it how it is you know...but I think that's a shame...I have often talked about how other brands have been reinvented like the Mini or Burberry - you know it's great that they exist again, I mean they're great British brands so we have had to be careful and you know pick the right moments and the right movies, the right stories so I think we're o.k.
OP: And sort of place your own unique stamp on it?SO: I think so...well the directors, certainly the directors and the writers we have been working with yeah.
OP: Are you looking at working with the same type of directors like Hammer did with the same family of collaborators?SO: I don't think you can do that anymore. I think it's difficult to do that...I mean I think it's a lovely idea. {Veteran Hammer screenwriter} Jimmy Sangster was asked 'how many screenplays did you write?' and he would say '175...' and so you know it was a different world. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing would turn up on the set and they would be with sets that hadn't been painted at the back and that was the film they had been four weeks earlier, and so it was like a family, a repertoire family, but I think that's difficult to do nowadays, I think the world is different but the film world is different in terms of having that group. There are some directors who can do that, I know that people like Shane Meadows like to work with a lot of the same people and it's fantastic and I am very envious of him but I think that when you are doing much bigger budget films I think it is quite difficult to do that.
OP: I suppose it's different compared to the old days where Hammer would work at the same studios and within the same locations?SO: Yeah well Hammer was based out at Bray...but you don't really need a studio anymore I mean we have shot 'Let Me In' at Los Alamos in Mexico, we shot 'The Resident' in New York and we are shooting 'Women in Black' in Yorkshire in Essex and Pinewood. I think its just a different thing, I mean you don't need the overhead of a studio anymore.
OP: You spoke about Christopher Lee and he has cameoed in 'The Resident'. Are you looking at bringing back any of the other surviving Hammer actors?SO: No I think that was a one off and it wasn't generated by PR or anything like that. It was really about the part that was right for him, I mean he's a great actor, really fantastic actor and it was a part that you know we looked and thought 'well who would be ideal for this?' and Christopher was and is...so we're not going to do that.
OP: Could you tell me a bit about 'Let Me In' and why it was chosen as the first new Hammer Studios cinematic release?SO: Well it wasn't chosen as the first, I mean we shot 'The Wake Wood' which is coming out next year and also 'The Resident'...so it was about the same time and we had shot 'The Resident' first. 'Let Me In' was just ready to come, in terms of the release pattern with our American partner they were just ready to release it earlier, and because it was a vampire film we thought well it would be good for the first Hammer film to be a vampire film, we don't think it is any better or worse than 'The Resident' or anything else, it just seemed to be the right thing to do and releasing it around October/November seemed to be the right thing as well...so there was a series of decisions that we made but we made these films around the same time.
OP: This is kind of a big American release but 'The Wake Wood' is kind of more British...SO: Well 'Let Me In' has received a wide release in the States through Overture Relativity, and that was a function of them being are partners early on. 'The Wake Wood' was a small film we made in Ireland early on very much like in the old tradition, if you like the Hammer tradition, in that sort of Wicker Manish type of area...the low budget film, it's a real good movie actually a really small film and that's being released by Vertigo in the UK but it's being sold all around the world, but Vertigo will do a really good job, they're a very good distributor and then 'The Resident' is coming out here in March with Icon who distributed Let Me In and so that's all in the pipeline.
OP: So will that continue, where you have big American films and smaller British ones?SO: Well I think again each film will find its own level and it would be crazy for us not to try and get the best release we can in the US...the US is the biggest market place, in some cases we are very fortunate that we get a pre-sale, in some cases we get a partner and sell it later when the film is made...so it will always be our intention to get our films released in the US for sure.
OP: So you're not too bothered about keeping a British stamp on things like the old Hammer films?SO: I think the world has changed and I think it's a global industry now. I mean I think 'The Woman In Black' is a very British horror film and I think 'The Wake Wood' as well...but I think 'The Resident' certainly has a more American feel to it and 'Let Me In' I think again is more of a global thing you sort of don't really know where it is...where is it? Los Alamos, New Mexico where's that? You know, it has a mystery to it which is quite good.
OP: You mentioned earlier you may be planning on re-visiting some of the back catalogue and putting your unique spin on it...SO: Yeah we are looking at some, we are looking at '{The} Quatermass (Xperiment}' and re-imagining 'Quatermass' which is one of the characters that we love and think it's very exciting...with the background of the science aspect and it's an intriguing subject for people and we are looking at '{The Legend of the} Seven Golden Vampires' which will be fun, so there's a few we will be looking at...some are unremakeable and shouldn't be touched and some lend themselves very much to it so we will be very careful with what we choose.
OP: Perhaps remake some of the lesser ones that perhaps didn't work so well?SO: Yeah that didn't quite work so well but with some great storylines and some of them do have great storylines.
OP: Like 'The Reptile?' But perhaps the make-up effects are a bit corny and could do with updating some how and 'The Devil Rides Out' is great...SO: Yeah 'The Devil Rides Out' is a great one and some of those are tied up with different rights holders, but 'The Devil Rides Out' is one that we would love to look at and 'The Nanny' is very good and 'Scream Of Fear'...the mini Hitchcock ones were very cool.
OP: Could you tell me more about 'Women In Black' which you have started filming?SO: Yeah we started filming and it's {based on} the Susan Hill novella which has been on the stage in the UK for the last 20 years and Jane Goldman adapted it, who wrote {the screenplay for} 'Kick-Ass', 'The Debt' and 'Stardust' and works a lot with {director} Matthew Vaughn who's doing 'X-Men' right now, he's a great writer. James Watkins who directed 'Eden Lake' is doing it, an incredible new talent I think and Daniel {Radcliffe} and it's Daniel's, well what he calls his first 'adult part'...he's fantastic and really great so we're very happy with him and that's coming out this time next year.
OP: Yeah I remember seeing the stage play and being very frightened so it will be interesting to see how you replicate that...SO: Yeah, well I think we will have a few jump scares.
OP: Going back to this distinct Hammer style are you looking to adopt your own style across the new films?SO: Well I think that's very difficult to do, I mean I think the Hammer style and horror was Gothic and it was period and I think that just the world has changed I mean I think that the urban myth films came out in America in the late 1970s with 'The Omen' and 'The Exorcist' and all those sorts of pictures, {and it} basically made a horrible contemporary unless the story really suited it and because Hammer focused on Vampires and 'Draculas' and 'Frankenstein' and it's all very period...'Van Helsing' and all that and so I think that we won't go for a house style, I mean I would love to know that I could work with people like James Watkins again and Jane Goldman again and these are amazing talents but I think again its difficult to do that but we'll see...love to work with {Let Me In director} Matt Reeves again, an incredible talent.
OP: Where did the choice of Matt Reeves to direct 'Let Me In' come from?SO: Well Matt knew about the material and people had talked to him about the material and he had seen the original and we had bought it and so we all kind of came together and so it was a very fortunate serendipitous meeting, but once we met him we knew he was the only man for the job.
OP: And how do you like to get involved with your collaborators?SO: I mean I think largely within the context of filmmaking and budgeting and the script and when you make a movie and you budget it, you bond it and you want to make sure the director is making the script that you commissioned... but yeah you know with talented people like Matthew and James you absolutely give them as much creative artistic freedom as possible.
OP: Are you looking to stay within the horror market and psychological thriller genre?SO: Yes I think Hammer has...well there are a number of genres within Hammer; sci-fi, psychological horror, thrillers, Dracula to Vampire stories, ghost stories and so there's quite a broad church but I think that once we get out of that it's dangerous so I think we should stay within that context, there's plenty of stories and material around that.
OP: Well I look forward to the Hammer re-birth and thank you for your time.SO: A real pleasure thank you.
'Let Me In' is released in U.K. Cinema's on November 5th.