Hammer classics slated for Blu-Ray restoration, lost material dredged up

Since the studio has come back to life in 2007, Hammer Studios have been hard at work putting out some quality content. High quality flicks such as "Let Me In" and the upcoming "The Woman in Black" help to prove that they mean business with their return to the big screen. With this news story over on the BBC this morning, Hammer is now planning to impress us even more with plans to restore thirty of their past horror classics for Blu-ray release!

On the docket are some of my favorite classics such as 1958's "Dracula", "Captain Kronos; Vampire Hunter" and "Frankenstein Created Woman" and a ton of others ranging from "Plague of the Zombies" to "She". This isn't just a straight up restoration though. They are pulling in assistance from other studios like Time Warner and Twentieth Century Fox who handled US distribution for many of the films to pull together the best stock of the originals that they can find. On top of that, they are tracking down lost footage and edits of the films, filming new extra features such as interviews with the stars of the classic flicks and a whole lot more.

There are some current Hammer Blurays on the market but overall they're pretty disappointing. They're just a bit bare-boned on most accounts and the transfers are nothing to write home about. If you've been holding out on starting your Hammer Blu-ray collection...this news makes it sound like it's worth waiting a bit longer. It's starting to sound like these will be the definitive versions of our beloved Hammer classics.