News

If the recent news of a new Quatermass movie being in the works got you in the mood to watch the original horror sci-fi movies featuring the daring professor, then you're in luck, because Scream Factory announced that they will release the Hammer's Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit on Blu-ray this May.

From Scream Factory: "Our love for Hammer Films this year continues as we announce today that we are prepping Quatermass II and Quatermass And The Pit for Blu-ray releases on May 14th!

Quatermass II (1957): The sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment! Professor Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) is Britain's most clever scientist. Investigating a series of bizarre incidents that have been reported from a deserted area, he finds a group of soldiers and government officials that appear to be controlled by aliens from another world. When a close friend is brutally murdered by these beings, Quatermass leads a...

Kirsten Howard John Saavedra Jan 31, 2019

Hammer is making a new Quatermass movie and Night Manager writer David Farr is attached to pen the script!

If you've ever found yourself lounging around on a Sunday afternoon, pipe in one hand, steaming mug of tea in the other, slippers perched precariously upon the very tip of your toes, wondering to yourself whether Bernard Quatermass would ever be swept along with the relentless tide of remakes and reboots, we've got some good news for you: it's happening, according to THR.

There's more good news: Hammer's Simon Oakes is producing. Oakes was behind Let Me In and The Woman in Black, also at Hammer. On writing duties for the new Quatermass film is David Farr, whose recent jobs include The Night Manager and Amazon's Hanna TV series. Jon Silk and Jay Ashenfelter will be overseeing production on the remake for Legendary Entertainment.

If...

Legendary Entertainment said it haas partnered with Hammer Films for Quatermass, a film based on the British mid-20th-century sci-fi hero Bernard Quatermass.

David Farr, who penned the script for The Night Manager and the sci-fi pic Hanna, is adapting. Hammer’s Simon Oakes is producing. Jon Silk and Jay Ashenfelter will oversee production for Legendary.

The character Professor Bernard Quatermass is a rocket scientist originally created by writer Nigel Kneale, As a pioneering force of the British space program, he encounters terrifying extra-terrestrial lifeforms and must draw from science to save humanity. He appeared in a 1950s BBC series and in three Hammer Film movies in the mid-’50s and -’60s including the 1967 pic Quatermass and the Pit (known as Five Million Years to Earth in the U.S.). Andrew Keir played the lead role.

Farr, who also wrote and produced the...

David Farr (The Night Manager) has been tapped to script Quatermass for Legendary Entertainment and partner Hammer which promises to be a new take on the iconic British sci-fi hero. The film will be produced by Hammer’s Simon Oakes and follow the story of Bernard Quatermass, which was made popular by the successful BBC 1950s series, and a trio of films from Hammer Film Productions from the mid-50s to the mid-60s and seen as a precursor to Dr. Who.

Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional rocket scientist originally created by writer Nigel Kneale who, as a pioneering force of the British space program, encounters terrifying extra-terrestrial lifeforms and must draw from science to save humanity. Heralded as Britain’s first television hero alongside Sherlock Holmes, Quatermass’ monumental influence spanned films, TV series, radio programs and print media over five decades, most notably in 1967 when Hammer Film Productions...

The Night Manager writer David Farr to adapt screenplay.

Legendary Entertainment and Hammer are partnering on a reboot of the British sci-fi property Quatermass.

David Farr (The Night Manager) will write and Hammer’s Simon Oakes will produce the project, based on the fictitious British rocket scientist Bernard Quatermass immortalised in the 1950s BBC series and three Hammer feature productions.

The background of the story finds Quatermass forced to use his powers to save humankind after his work for the British space programme leads to an encounter with hostile aliens. He appeared in Hammer Film Productions’ 1967 feature Quatermass And The Pit.

“Brace Yourself For A Shock!…200 Feet of Living Burning Horror!” Eugène Lourié’s second feature about an irate sea monster wrecking a city features sober eco-preaching, good performances by Gene Evans and André Morell, and several minutes of exciting stop-motion animation nirvana. One just needs to overlook a few lunkhead effects scenes and concentrate on the key Willis O’Brien / Pete Peterson material. It’s a Shock all right — do you prefer to be stepped on like a bug, or fried by a zillion volts of ‘projected radiation?’

The Giant Behemoth

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1959 / B&W / 1:78 widescreen / 80 min. / Street Date January 22, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Gene Evans, André Morell, John Turner, Leigh Madison, Jack MacGowran, Maurice Kaufmann, Derren Nesbitt.

Cinematography: Ken Hodges

Production Design: Eugène Lourié

Special Visual Effects: Willis H. O’Brien, Pete Peterson, Phil Kellison, Jack Rabin, Irving Block, Louis DeWitt.

Original Music: Edwin Astley...

We have another busy week of home entertainment releases on the horizon, as there are over two dozen titles making their way to Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday. For those of you cult film enthusiasts, you have a lot of options when it comes to adding items to your collections, as Alienator is being resurrected by Scream Factory, Arrow Video is unleashing a special edition set for Madhouse, and Mondo Macabre has given Paul Naschy’s Inquisition an HD overhaul as well.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also have new releases for The Hound of Baskervilles, Medusa, and Nicholas Ray’s classic noir They Live By Night to look forward to as well. For you TV lovers out there, the box sets for the final season of both The Vampire Diaries and Grimm are being released Tuesday, and for those who are on the hunt for some new action cinema,...

Clifford Hatts (Obituary, 25 September) designed many memorable productions for BBC Television, including Quatermass and the Pit. I wonder if he was also involved in what for me was more memorable – Hancock and the Pit, a spoof of the sci-fi serial.

I particularly recall an exchange in which Tony Hancock asks Sid James what he would do if an alien appeared. James says he would give it “a punch up the bracket”. “Has it occurred to you,” retorts Hancock, “that a Martian might not have a bracket to be punched up?”

Continue reading...