By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

HAMMER FILM’S THE WOMAN IN BLACK SET TO STAR DANIEL RADCLIFFE

Posted Monday, July 19th, 2010 - 1 Comment »
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London, England (19.07.10) – Daniel Radcliffe will take the lead in The Woman in Black, Hammer Films and Alliance Films hotly anticipated adaptation of Susan Hill’s best-selling novel, it was announced today by Simon Oakes, and Nigel Sinclair of Exclusive and Hammer.
To be directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake) and written by Jane Goldman (Kick Ass, The Debt) The Woman in hammertime.jpgBlack follows a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe), who is ordered to travel to a remote corner of the UK and sort out a recently deceased client’s papers. As he works alone in an old and isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover its tragic secrets, and his unease grows when he discovers that the local village is held hostage by the ghost of a scorned woman set on vengeance. Production is expected to begin in the Fall of 2010. Exclusive and Alliance Films will co-finance the film. Alliance Films will also distribute the film in the United Kingdom (Momentum), Spain (Aurum) and Canada (Alliance Films). Exclusive Films International, headed by Chairman Guy East and President of International Sales and Distribution Alex Walton, is handling worldwide sales.
Daniel Radcliffe is best known for his portrayal of the bespectacled wizard Harry Potter, in the hugely successful series of feature films based on J. K. Rowling’s publishing phenomenon. He has starred in all eight films and collaborated with respected directors Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Newell and David Yates. He also starred in Brian Kirk’s My Boy Jack (written by and also co-starring David Haig), playing the role of Rudyard Kipling’s tragic 17 year old son who went off to fight in the First World War. Most recently Radcliffe has proved him self an accomplished stage actor, receiving tremendous reviews and acclaim for his portrayal of Alan Strang in Peter Shaffer’s Equus in the West End and on Broadway. Radcliffe will return to Broadway next Spring to star in the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
“’When I met Dan, it was quite uncanny how closely our thoughts on the story mirrored each other: I can’t wait to get down to work with him to fashion a compelling character and a classy ghost story that tugs at the heart and chills to the bone,” says James Watkins.
Simon Oakes continues, “We’re thrilled to have Daniel on board, I can think of no better actor to play the role of Arthur Kipps. I’m confident that under the direction of James Watkins, he’ll take Jane Goldman’s script and deliver an utterly intense and compelling performance.”
Daniel Radcliffe said, “I am incredibly excited to be part of The Woman In Black. Jane Goldman’s script is beautifully written – both tender and terrifying in equal measure. It is thrilling to be working with James Watkins. From his brilliant work on Eden Lake and also having met him and heard his vision for the film, I know he will make a fantastic film.”
The Woman in Black is produced by Simon Oakes for Exclusive’s Hammer Films label and Richard Jackson at Talisman Films. Exclusive’s Nigel Sinclair and Guy East are serving as Executive Producers, along with Roy Lee for Vertigo Entertainment (The Ring). Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass) is adapting the screenplay, based on Susan Hill’s best-selling novel.
Susan Hill’s novel has become a modern classic, appearing on the national curriculum in the United Kingdom. The Woman in Black was also adapted into a stage play by Stephen Mallatratt, first performed at the Theatre-By-The-Sea in Scarborough, UK in 1987. It moved to the Fortune Theatre in London’s West End in 1989, where it still successfully runs today, over twenty years later, and has been performed the world over.
Exclusive is currently in post-production on three films: Matt Reeves’ Let Me In starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz, Elias Koteas and Richard Jenkins (produced through its Hammer Films label, Overture Films will release the film in October 2010); Antti Jokinen’s The Resident starring Hilary Swank, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lee Pace and Christopher Lee (produced through Hammer Films); and Peter Weir’s The Way Back starring Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong and Colin Farrell. The company recently premiered Spitfire Pictures’ The Last Play at Shea, about Billy Joel and his last performance at Shea Stadium, at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival and is currently in production on the authorised history of Formula 1.


ABOUT HAMMER FILMS
Hammer is the legendary British film brand, which was originally launched in 1934 and delivered a hugely successful run of films in the 1950s including Gothic classics “Dracula” and “The Curse of Frankenstein” and Sci-Fi picture “The Quatermass Xperiment.” Hammer’s reputation became branded worldwide as ‘Hammer House of Horror’. In the 1960s Hammer struck distribution deals with Universal, Warner Brothers, Fox and Columbia. Hammer went on to produce a huge volume of films which included such titles as “The Plague of Zombie,” “The Nanny,” “Quatermass and the Pit,” “The Devil Rides Out” and “One Million Years B.C.”
Not in production since the 1980s, the company’s brand is now being aggressively reinvigorated by Exclusive Media Group (Exclusive) through new investment in the development and production of film, television and digital-platform content.
Hammer’s return to horror was heralded by interactive web serial “Beyond the Rave,” which was broadcast by MySpace in 12 territories in 2008. Today, Hammer has an active development slate across diverse genres sourced out of both Europe and the United States. Hammer recently wrapped production on “The Resident,” which stars two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Boys Don’t Cry”) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“Watchmen”) and is directed by Antti Jokinen. Also in post production for Hammer is, “Let Me In”, an adaptation of the highly acclaimed Swedish Film, “Lat den Ratte Komma In,” a.k.a. “Let the Right One In”, written and directed by Matt Reeves (“Cloverfield”).
ABOUT EXCLUSIVE MEDIA GROUP (EXCLUSIVE)
Exclusive Media Group is a vertically integrated independent film studio which was founded by strategic investment group, Cyrte Investments, in May 2008. Exclusive comprises:
1. Three development & production labels –
o Exclusive Films, which has Peter Weir’s The Way Back as its first production.
o Hammer Films, the iconic brand that already has Let Me In and The Resident being readied for
release.
o Spitfire Pictures, which has become the specialist documentary film production house.
2. US theatrical distributor – Newmarket Films.
3. International sales & marketing operations for in-house and third party product – Exclusive Films International.
4. Exclusive Films International also monetises a significant film library of over 550 film titles.
Exclusive is run by Co-Chairmen Nigel Sinclair, Guy East and Chris Ball. Sinclair also serves as Group CEO, East as Chairman of Exclusive Films International and Ball as President of Newmarket Films. Simon Oakes serves as Vice-Chairman of the Group Board as well as President and CEO of Hammer. Marc Schipper and Andy Mayson serve on the Executive Board, as COO and Managing Director/CFO respectively, overseeing the operations, finance and strategic development of the worldwide group. Exclusive’s strategy has been to build a vertically integrated global film entertainment group which develops and controls its own intellectual property and exploits it on a cross-media basis in the digitally converged era. Exclusive has an active development slate and produces, finances and markets 5-7 high-quality commercial feature films and documentaries per year under its three production labels. Exclusive actively acquires further feature films for international distribution via Exclusive Films International, and for US theatrical distribution via Newmarket Films. The Group also develops and produces projects for television and digital platforms.
Exclusive continues to actively explore strategic expansion through M&A transactions and joint ventures – specific focus is on the acquisition of further high-quality film libraries and local territory distribution.
ABOUT ALLIANCE FILMS INC.
Alliance Films is a leading distributor of motion pictures in Canada, United Kingdom and Spain. The Company distributes filmed entertainment to theatres, on DVD, online and to television broadcasters. Alliance Films holds the Canadian distribution rights to the productions of leading independent studios, including Relativity Media, Focus Features and The Weinstein Company.

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Posted in Press Releases | 1 Comment »

One Response to “HAMMER FILM’S THE WOMAN IN BLACK SET TO STAR DANIEL RADCLIFFE”

  1. Lupe Hillebrand says:
    November 24, 2010 at 2:13 pm

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon