Hammer Scratch Cards

New Hammer is certainly busy putting their company logo on a variety of different products. Courtesy of the Isle of Dead Yahoo Group I can now present a scan of a scratch card that is currently being sold in the UK.

Pete and Chris

I really don't have any background info about these clips. My guess is that they are just fan animations produced for YouTube, but they are absolutely hilarious! Especially Christopher Lee's parody is spot on.

Beyond the Rave

Adrian Smith's report from the filming of Hammer's new film, Beyond the Rave, can be found on the Cinema Retro web site. He worked on the set as an extra and also adds some additional info about the movie: Ingrid Pitt will have a small role in it and it's intended to be released not in cinemas or DVDs, but as mobile phone or Internet downloads. Not too sure how I feel about it, but I will keep an open mind and reserve my judgement until I have seen the final film (or should I say download).

Captain Kronos Soundtrack

This press release came out earlier on this month. Looks like the CD should now be out:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CAPTAIN KRONOS, VAMPIRE HUNTER – ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK – COMPOSED BY LAURIE JOHNSON TO BE RELEASED ON BSX RECORDS.
This release is a limited edition of 2000 units.

The first 100 copies purchased through BUYSOUNDTRAX will be autographed by Actress Caroline Munro.

(September 6th, 2007; Los Angeles, CA) BUYSOUNDTRAX Records, in association with GDI Records, will be releasing CAPTAIN KRONOS, VAMPIRE HUNTER. The soundtrack features music composed and conducted by Laurie Johnson (THE AVENGERS, DR. STRANGELOVE, FIRST MEN IN THE MOON) for the 1974 cult classic written and directed by Brian Clemens (THE AVENGERS, DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE, THE PROFESSIONALS).

Set in Eastern Europe, in the 1600s, CAPTAIN KRONOS, VAMPIRE HUNTER stars German actor Horst Janson as Kronos, expert swordsman and vampire slayer, armed with a samurai sword, along with John Cater (THE AVENGERS) as his hunchbacked assistant, Professor Hieronymos Grost. They are joined by the First Lady Of Fantasy, Caroline Munro (GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, AT THE EARTH'S CORE) as the beautiful Gypsy girl, Carla, whom they rescue from the gallows at the beginning of the film. Together, they must unravel the mystery of a series of deaths in the countryside that has left once young and beautiful girls old and withered in their demise. Boasting exquisite Gothic set design, rich colorful photography, impressive make-up effects, and a bevy of beautiful actresses, all in typical Hammer fashion, CAPTAIN KRONOS is augmented by a superb score by composer Laurie Johnson, featuring one of the strongest main title themes that still commands the attention decades later.
Born in Hampstead, London, in 1927, Laurie Johnson undertook his musical studies at the Royal College of Music, where he would later return as a professor. He embarked on a professional musical career at the age of 21, composing and arranging for a variety of big bands, a love which continues to this day with his jazz ensemble, The London Big Band. Johnson began scoring films and television in 1956, and soon proved to have an affinity for quirky and fantastic films with his scores for Stanley Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE (1963) and FIRST MEN IN THE MOON (1964). In addition, Johnson scored episodes of THRILLER and THE AVENGERS for television, including the latter's popular title theme. Johnson also became associated with the legendary Hollywood composer, Bernard Herrmann towards the end of Herrmann's career.

BUYSOUNDTRAX Records presents the original motion picture soundtrack to CAPTAIN KRONOS, VAMPIRE HUNTER in film order, along with several bonus tracks of musical effects tracks used in the film and a special extended version of the Kronos theme. The booklet contains liner notes written by noted author Randall D. Larson and a forward by Carla The Gypsy herself, Caroline Munro. CAPTAIN KRONOS, VAMPIRE HUNTER is the first collaboration between BUYSOUNDTRAX Records and GDI RECORDS and we are looking forward to continuing in the fine tradition of GDI's incredible series of soundtracks from the Hammer vaults.

To get more information and to hear audio samples go here:

http://buysoundtrax.stores.yahoo.net/capkronvamhu.html

http://www.buysoundtrax.com/

CAPTAIN KRONOS, VAMPIRE HUNTER is available for pre-orders at www.buysoundtrax.com and will start shipping on Sept 14th, 2007.

Little Shoppe of Horrors #19

I am half way through reading the latest issue of Dick Klemensen’s Little Shoppe of Horrors, this time entirely dedicated to Terence Fisher. As usual with LSOH’s theme issues you practically end up having something close to resembling an entire book on the subject available to you in magazine form and hours of reading material at your disposal.

The mag is full of interesting articles and interviews about Fisher, his career in and out of Hammer, his visual style and reception.

The only minor nags I have with this issue is that I am used to a gorgeous front cover painting and am missing the letters and news pages that are usually gracing the introductory pages of the magazine. The cover in this instance is good enough, I guess, for Photoshop manipulations, but still a far cry from the original art works that Dick had used for the last couple of years.

Again, these are minor complaints. After all we are now in a situation where we actually have regular annual appearances of our favourite genre mag. In actual fact, 2008 even looks like the first year ever (or at least in my living memory) that will find not one, but two issues produced: one of them (#20) dedicated to Hammer’s rival Amicus, the other one dedicated to Hammer’s Curse of Frankenstein.

So, missing letter pages or not, Photoshop cover page or not: These are very exciting times for Little Shoppe of Horrors. I for one don’t know where Dick finds the time to produce all those amounts of quality material.

So do yourself a favour and buy, borrow or steal a copy. After all this issue also has a number of topless photos…. of Dick himself before and after a diet. ;-)

Back again

In case any of you were wondering about my recent inactivity here: I was travelling Europe a bit throughout the month of September and had the time of my life visiting Luxembourg, Switzerland (Zurich, Davos), Germany (Black Forest, Bavaria) and Italy (Lake Garda, Venice).

Now I am back and ready to do some more Hammer blogging.