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Iconic British horror label Hammer Films and Studios has been acquired by renowned British theater producer John Gore.

Gore, a 20-time Tony, Emmy and Olivier-winning entertainment producer, is known for his live theater company the John Gore Organization, which owns Broadway.com and Broadway Across America – a leading presenter, distributor and marketer of Broadway theater worldwide. The company was one of the producers of three of 2022’s big Tony winners: “A Strange Loop” (best musical), “The Lehman Trilogy” (best play) and “Company” (best revival). Gore is listed in Variety500 – an index of the 500 most influential business leaders shaping the global media industry.

Gore will lead a new team as chair and CEO.

Founded in 1934, Hammer Films is synonymous with horror, after defining the genre in Britain with classics such as “Dracula” (1958) “The Curse of Frankenstein” (1957) and “The Mummy” (1959), which made stars of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing while spawning numerous sequels successful across the globe.

Pop culture comes to life in St. Louis this weeekend! It’s the Wizard World Comic Con April 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at America’s Center downtown (701 Convention Plaza – St. Louis, Mo 63101), and boy oh boy, do they have an amazing line-up of guests!

Wizard World Comic Con events bring together thousands of fans of all ages to celebrate the best in pop-fi, pop culture, movies, graphic novels, cosplay, comics, television, sci-fi, toys, video gaming, gaming, original art, collectibles, contests and more. St. Louis show hours are Friday, April 1st, 3-8 p.m.; Saturday, April 2nd, 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Sunday, April 3rd, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Wizard World Comic Con St. Louis is also the place for cosplay, with fans young and old showing off their best costumes throughout the event. Fans dressed as every imaginable character – and some never before dreamed – will roam the convention floor...

'No Good Deed' movie going unpunished to top weekend box office? (photo: Idris Elba in 'No Good Deed') Apologies for the bad wordplay above, but if Friday estimates are a reliable indicator, No Good Deed should indeed go unpunished to the top of the domestic box office this weekend, September 12-14, 2014. But why "unpunished"? Well, so far the Sam Miller-directed thriller starring four-time Emmy nominee Idris Elba (Luther) and Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) has a downright putrid 10% score and 2.6/10 average among Rotten Tomatoes' top critics. Sony Pictures, whose subsidiary ScreenGems is distributing No Good Deed, reportedly opted to skip late Thursday screenings to ensure that the film's plot twist would be kept under wraps. More likely, however, it was the critics' derisive remarks that Sony wanted under wraps. For instance: "The final plot twist...

TV Horror:Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen

by Lorna Jowett and Stacey Abbott

I.B. Taurus

270 pages

Paperback

Isbn: 978148856189

By Adrian Smith

Television can easily be dismissed as being an unsuitable medium for the horror genre, having to please the moral majority and unable to be as red in tooth and claw as those horrific offerings on the silver screen. Jowett and Abbott's new book does its best to prove this argument wrong, demonstrating that in many ways television has been able to explore the darker recesses of horror in far more depth than can be done in a single two hour movie. Shows such as The Twilight Zone and Buffy the Vampire Slayer have embraced the limitations of the small screen to present some truly chilling, unsettling moments. Long-running shows like The X-Files were able to have story arcs that lasted several seasons, building complex characters and even more complicated plots.

On 11 October, Halloween began early at the Barbican Centre with a screen talk by Mark Gatiss and film critic Jonathan Rigby, followed by a screening of Harry Kümel's Belgian vampire film Daughters of Darkness (1971). The hour-long discussion covered much the same ground as Gatiss' BBC4 series A History of Horror - on which Rigby was show consultant - but for fans it was a great opportunity to see in person these two engaging, funny, and impressively knowledgeable horror enthusiasts.

The pair chatted about German Expressionism and the striking black and white images from Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) and F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) that stayed with them long before they were able to view the actual films. A large part of the talk was given to Universal's classic monster movies, which started with Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame...

My current tussles with the Linux command line have kept my radar swinging pretty slowly lately; therefore thanks to Mark C for pointing me to Robert Llewellyn's blog. Llewellyn, the presenter of Scrapheap Challenge for 10 years, but beloved of Sf TV fans for playing servile robot Kryten in the BBC's Red Dwarf, has commented on the Daily Mail's joyous re-reporting of Craig Charles' announcement on Real Radio: TV channel Dave is planning a new series of the science-fiction comedy for 2012, in the wake of the channel's 2009 21st-anniversary specials, which proved hugely popular, with viewing figures that trumped BBC2 and C4 combined.

Speaking to presenters Ditchy and Salty on the Real Radio breakfast show, Craig Charles, who played Lister in Red Dwarf for most on the 1990s, and is currently featuring in Coronation Street, told listeners "They've just commissioned another series of Red Dwarf. We're gonna film at the end of November,...

The next time we'll see Doctor Who on UK TV screens is for the Christmas special, with Katherine Jenkins and Michael Gambon just announced as the special guests.

Then the sixth series of the sci-fi show will air in 2011, with showrunner Steven Moffat revealing it will expand upon the 'silence' theme.

A mysterious voice was heard announcing that "silence will fall" in the final episodes of the most recent series.

Moffat told Doctor Who Confidential: "What is that, who is that, who are the silence, what's coming? Also, River Song - who is she really? That's what we're going to find out next year."

In the meantime, as we wait for more Doctor Who on our screens, here's some fascinating facts to tide you over...

Secrets Of The Time Lords:

First Doctor - William Hartnell (1963-1966)

William trained as a jockey before deciding to ditch it in favour of acting.

Tonight sees the new adaptation of John Wyndham's novel The Day Of The Triffids begin on BBC1, with the concluding part tomorrow.

And with not so much as the hint of a tendril in the publicity shots, sci-fi fans have been wondering what the latest incarnation of the fictional flora will look like.

Triffids are probably the most well-known venomous vegetation on the big or small screen but far from the only example. So, with the Triffids about to wield their deadly stingers once again, it's time to take a look at the top horticultural horrors.

Please note that the following list will include fungi which were previously considered to be plants but are now classified in their own kingdom separate from animals, plants and bacteria. In fact, genetic studies have shown fungi to be more closely related to animals than plants. Nevertheless, mushrooms are grown as crops and eaten as vegetables,...

This Side of the Truth, a new comedy by Ricky Gervais who is making his feature film helming debut, gets an original score by Tim Atack, a British composer who has written music for television (including Krakatoa: Volcano of Destruction and The Quatermass Experiment) and a handful of features (Among Giants and Elephant Juice). This Side of the Truth features a strong cast (Jonah Hill, Jennifer Garner, Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, Ricky Gervais, Patrick Stewart, Rob Lowe, Christopher Guest...) and an original story about a world where no one has ever lied - until one day, when a writer seizes the opportunity for personal gain.