Millennium Entertainment has announced it will begin distributing films from Exclusive Media's Hammer library in April. Under the new deal, titles including
Dracula: Prince of Darkness,
Frankenstein Created Woman and
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires will be available for the first time in nearly a decade. While specific Blu-ray plans have yet to be announced, Millennium also revealed it will "provide high end, limited edition Blu-rays and Collector's Sets to the loyal horror fan over the next several years."
In an official press release, Peter Naish, Senior VP, Distribution, Hammer, says "we are really pleased to be in business with Millennium to bring the newly restored titles from our library to the United States in HD for the first time. Alongside the new extras we have created, we hope that our American Hammer fans will love the Blu-ray collector's editions and that these editions will also help new fans discover our rich history."
The following is the press release in its entirety:
Millennium Entertainment announced today that they will distribute titles from Exclusive Media's Hammer library in the U.S. Established in 1934, Hammer is a groundbreaking feature film production company that was instrumental in creating the horror genre and which recently diversified into publishing, live theatre and live attractions.
Stated Steve Nickerson, President of Millennium Entertainment: "Hammer is one of the most renowned and beloved film brands in the world and we are thrilled to bring the Hammer Films library to U.S. fans."
With this new distribution deal, classics such as Dracula: Prince of Darkness and Frankenstein Created Woman will be made available to the public in new configurations for the first time in almost 10 years. With a multi-tiered approach, a full release schedule is planned to both introduce the Hammer Horror brand to a new audience not familiar with the classic line and provide high end, limited edition Blu-rays and Collector's Sets to the loyal horror fan over the next several years.
Launching with the April 2nd DVD release of the "Hammer Horror 3 Feature Film Set," this unique collection of classic Hammer films is offered at an affordable price to encourage the general public to join the Hammer fanbase. The set is headlined by Hammer stars Christopher Lee (The Lords of the Rings trilogy and the new Hobbit trilogy) in Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), as well as Peter Cushing (Star Wars) in The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974) and Frankenstein Created Woman (1967).
"We are really pleased to be in business with Millennium to bring the newly restored titles from our library to the United States in HD for the first time," said Peter Naish, Senior VP, Distribution, Hammer. "Alongside the new extras we have created, we hope that our American Hammer fans will love the Blu-ray collector's editions and that these editions will also help new fans discover our rich history."