Hammer Films has been on a roll lately with THE WOMAN IN BLACK and its upcoming sequel ANGEL OF DEATH, as well as the anticipated THE QUIET ONES, which will be heading our way next spring. On top of that, just last week we brought you the news that Hammer is working on a reboot of THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN. So what else does the recently revived company have up their proverbial sleeves? A revival of 1974's CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER, of course. And Hammer CEO Simon Oakes wants Ben Wheatley to be the man to bring the Captain back to the screen!
Speaking with Empire, Oakes shares his enthusiasm for the project, sharing…
"The thing about Kronos is that it's one of those things where we need to find a way in. Brian Clemens wrote the first one saying he wanted to bring a modern take to the idea of the vampire hunter, and yet Kronos still wears tights! But the ambition and imagination at work in that film were what people responded to. People at Comic-Con always ask if we're doing a new one, and I always say, 'Yeah, we're doing Kronos!' and the blogosphere goes wild. So if we can find the right writer to reimagine it then that's what we'll do."
Oakes then shares that he wants SIGHTSEERS and KILL LIST director Ben Wheatley to be the man to bring the character to a new generation of movie-goers.
"I've offered it to Ben Wheatley! I've told him Kronos is his whenever he wants it. You can put that in print! That might get him off his arse! [laughs] I'm a huge fan of Ben's. I told him, 'Whenever you want Kronos, it's yours, mate. Just get back to me.' And he never got back to me! So we'll shame him in print into doing it now!"
As a fan of Ben Wheatley's work, I'd love to see him tackle CAPTAIN KRONOS. Hell, I'd watch anything Wheatley does! So I hope they can make it happen. Wheatley still has his adaptation of JG Ballard's HIGH RISE in the works, but I hope that he can work with Hammer to make CAPTAIN KRONOS happen.
The original films followed…
Vampire hunter and expert swordsman Kronos finds himself in a small village where several of the local young women have been found in an advanced state of age, their youth drained from them by a vampire's kiss. Kronos' search leads him to the Durward estate where he is met by the effete children of the apparently aged and sick Lady Durward.