DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
Members' Mausoleum => Calendar Events / Announcements Archive => Calendar Events / Announcements '26 I => Calendar Events / Announcements '17 I => Topic started by: Mysterious Benefactor on March 19, 2017, 07:40:18 PM
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Guardians of the Galaxy writer sinking his teeth into Captain Kronos — Vampire Hunter (http://ew.com/books/2017/03/17/guardians-of-the-galaxy-captain-kronos-dan-abnett/)
Funny, I saw Captain Kronos — Vampire Hunter back in the day but I don't have much of a memory of it - not even after having watched the trailer in the article. And I'm normally a fan of Brian Clemens' works, so it surprises me how little I remember of the movie...
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I've never seen it either, though I've seen pretty much all of the Hammer output from that period. For a moment, I thought that one of the actors in the trailer was Michael York. It's not, but that may be what they intended.
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Kronos (as it is commonly known in Hammer fandom) has acquired quite the cult following over the years. I first saw it on the CBS Late Movies sometime in the mid 1970s. I think it's a pretty cool film--not entirely successful, perhaps, but much more interesting than a lot of the more polished, glossy, compact productions.
I presume this is happening because Brian Clemens died last year (I think it was last year?) and perhaps someone approached his sons for the rights to the Kronos project. It had originally been meant to be a sequel but the release and distribution of the original film was so badly botched that the movie had only a spotty and intermittent appearance in theaters--plus, of course, Hammer studios was in a state of collapse by the time the movie played here, around 1974 I think. Horst Janson, who was I think German (perhaps Austrian?) plays Kronos and does have a presence that might make you think of Michael York. The last I heard, Horst was still alive and active as an actor.
An intriguing facet of the original movie was the use of some very offbeat folklore that sets it apart from the usual Hammer vampire film. I've never known if that folklore was something Clemens invented, or found in Montague Summers.
G.
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Ah OK it's yet another comic book adaptation. Last year a UK fan sent me an interesting short comic based on Kronos that appeared somewhere or other back in the early or mid 1970s.
I suddenly feel much less excited... though I'm less than optimistic now whenever a "re-boot" of a classic character or story from the "old days" is mooted.
G.