19 January 2012:
In a landmark collaboration, Hammer today announced that STUDIOCANAL, Anolis Entertainment (Germany), Pinewood, illuminate Hollywood fka HTV and others are coming together to undertake a major restoration of the iconic Hammer film library. The project will bring over 30 movies into HD format for Blu-ray and new media exploitation in the 21st Century.
DraculaPrince of Darkness is the first title scheduled for release in the global restoration project and will be released in the UK in conjunction with STUDIOCANAL in March 2012. The partnership continues throughout the spring for the releasesof The Reptile and The Plague of The Zombies, and will also include The Devil Rides Out, Rasputin the Mad Monk and The Mummy’s Shroud during the course of the year.
Hammer will also release definitive versions of its three hugely-influential original Gothic classics in the UK:The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy.Aswell as featuring a fully-restored HD picture and restored sound, there mastered films will boast a host of newly-filmed extras, including interviewswith cast members.
These documentary extras are being produced by Hammer expert and historian, Marcus Hearn – author of the recent “The HammerVault”.Pinewood Studios carried out the restoration of the first three Studiocanal titles after housing the original negatives for the films, restoring the original UK title sequence to The Plague of The Zombies as well as the UK title cards to Dracula Prince of Darkness.Recently-discovered footage that was originally cut from the British version of Dracula has been restored by Molinare to the BFI’s 2007 restoration courtesy of The National Film Center at The Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. The Japanese footage features an extended and particularly gruesome death scene for Dracula, as well as a moment considered too erotic by the censors of the day.
Following the discovery and restoration of the Japanese footage to Dracula, Hammer is keen to unearth further “lost” scenes and on-set footage from The Curse of Frankenstein, The Mummy and other titles in their library, and hope that any private collectors with viable unseen elements will contact thecompany.In addition, Hammer will regularly be posting to a “Restoration Blog”,which will give a unique insider’s view on the entire process, frommaterial selection right the way through to release.
The blog can be followed at: http://blog.hammerfilms.comothercompanies/ involved in the restoration project include Warner Bros. MotionPicture Imaging and Thought Equity Motion in the US and Cineimage and Deluxe142 in the UK.
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Proper restoration of these Hammer titles also means reproducing them in the correct aspect ratio. Color balance is a more difficult problem because some titles were serviced in dye transfer Technicolor, and some were only issued in Eastman (or Deluxe) prints.
ReplyDeleteThis is a story we've been following since it was announced last year, Donk. Lets hope they get it right. marcus
ReplyDeletei purchased dracula on dvd almost 10 years ago. i am a hammer fan and although i love the film i did feel a little disappointed with the audio and the picture quality. i greet this news with joy!
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