Hammer Time For Horror Fans

Britain's masters of Gothic horror movies, Hammer Films, are to be resurrected from the dead after a media consortium agreed to acquire the movie company and turn it into a multi-media horror business.

CBS News Correspondent Tom Rivers reports that horror film buffs are salivating at Hammer's return after a 17-year absence. Hammer Films brought us such classics as The Curse of Frankenstein.

Terry Ilott, who, with Naish, will run the new company, says the time is right and the formula is simple. New blood means new projects. Ingrid Pitt, who starred in Vampire Lovers, is ready to sink her teach into the relaunched Hammer.

"I think it's just fantastic that it's finally happened," she says.

A new TV series is already in the pipeline, and remakes of Hammer horror classics are being considered.

Hammer's new owners include Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising co-founder Charles Saatchi, British Film Commission chairman Larry Chrisfield and British Phonographic Industry Chairman Rob Dickins.

Hammer Films took off in the 1950s with blood-curdling color remakes of old black-and-white Hollywood movies, which caused an uproar among critics for their graphic depiction of blood and guts. The studio's cult classics turned actors Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing into international stars.

After churning out more than 250 low-budget films, many of which still turn up on television, the production house disappeared in the shadow of big-budget Hollywood films, and various attempts to resurrect its name failed.