Tags: christopher lee

Christopher Lee has been awarded a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, for his services to drama and his charity work. Although the 87-year-old has over 250 TV and movie credits to his name, he will probably always be associated with horror films. It was his work with Hammer that made him an international star, playing, amongst others, Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy and Sir Henry Baskerville. From there he went on to appear in other genre classics such as The Wicker Man (his personal favourite of any film he's been in) and Death Line, as well as playing Bond villain Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun. More recently he found a new generation of fans playing the evil Count Dooku in Star Wars Episodes II and III, and Saruman in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Aside from his acting work, Lee has also been a supporter of the United Nations childrens charity UNICEF for many years.

Legend Films, known for releasing excellent restorations of classic horror films in both their original black & white and newly colorized forms, has licensed a number of classic horror and sci-fi titles from Paramount, according to DVD Drive-in. This is great news for horror fans, as up until recently, Paramount has been reluctant to release these "library" films. Included in the deal are Amicus flicks like The Skull (1965) and The Deadly Bees (1967), the Hammer thriller The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), Roger Christian's The Sender (1982), the slasher parody Student Bodies (1981), Saul Bass's ants amok movie Phase IV (1974), and the wacky Jekyll and Hyde Together Again (1982). Non-horror titles include ZPG (1972) and the William Castle-directed comedy The Busy Body (1967).(read more...)

Variety.com reports that Robert Englund's horror project The Vij (previously reported as The Viy) is set to go with Englund in the director's chair and Christopher Lee in a lead role. The film is based on Nikolaj Gogol's novel, which follows a young priest who is manipulated by an evil genie into committing murder and falling in love with a witch who is not who she appears to be. The book was previously adapted as 1968's Viy and it also served as an inspiration for Mario Bava while he developed Black Sunday (1960).(read more...)

Fangoria has some really interesting news regarding Robert Englund's next project. He'll be directing an adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's short story "The Viy". Gogol's tale served as Mario Bava's main inspiration for Black Sunday. Englund told Fangoria that he hoped to convince horror icon Christopher Lee to star in the film, which begins filming in Italy next month.

Disney animator, actor, screenwriter, and just a plain old geeked-out monster kid, Frank Dietz is most known in the horror community for his business SKETCHY THINGS (www.sketchythings.com). Sketchy Things is a classic-horror caricature business which sells Frank's monster sketch books, posters of Frank's works, and an opportunity to have yourself drawn with your favorite movie monster! Not to mention, Frank does a moderately decent Christopher Lee impression. I got the opportunity to talk to this perfectly charming guy and it was probably the most easy going 30 minutes I ever spent interviewing.

Classic-Horror: Hi Frank! You ready?

Frank Dietz: Sure am!

C-H: Thank you so much for doing this by the way.

(read more...)