EXCLUSIVE: Hammer Films turns a spritely 90 years old later this year, and Sky is getting in on the celebrations. The UK pay-TV network has teamed with the iconic horror studio and Cardiff’s Deep Fusion Films to make Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters , which will launch in November, timed to coincide with the legendary production house’s 90th birthday. The 90-minute feature doc will track Hammer’s progression from a back off in London’s Regent Street to its iconic status within the horror film genre.
The company, started by comedian and businessman William Hinds in 1934, made films such as The Curse of Frankenstein , Dracula and The Quartermass Xperiment during the period for which it is best known, making stars out of the likes of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing . Deep Fusion co-founder Benjamin Field is helming the doc, with the director revisiting the people in front of and behind the camera who made the operation a byword for horror, and will include numerous key contributors, unseen archive footage and interviews with the likes of Tim Burton, John Carpenter and Joe Dante, whose styles were all influenced by Hammer. Production has already begun in three separate locations and sets based on the Hammer classics such as Dracula.
Field is known for his unusual storytelling and dynamic visual styles, so it’s fair to assume we’ll see Hammer Horror tropes presented in a different way. Hammer Films CEO and Chairman John Gore is executive producer and his company .