Update:

Hammer CEO Simon Oakes and producer Ben Holden were interviewed by Owen Williams further about their new Abominable Snowman film:

“We’re very excited about it,” enthuses Oakes. “Inevitably somebody not understanding the history and mythology of it will see a word like ‘abominable’ and take the piss, but more fool them!”

The new version of the Yeti story will see an illegal Himalayan expedition accidentally awakening the dangerous beasts, risking almost certain death. “We’re not remaking the Val Guest film,” explains Holden. “We’re starting again from scratch, but the conversation began because that creature or that myth is part of the Hammer library or lexicon and we wanted to develop something around it.”

Following a happy Hammer experience on The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death, John Croker is writing the new film, in cahoots with Matthew Read (Hammer Of The Gods). “Hammer has always seemed to give rise to these iconic sorts of stories,” says Holden of the pair’s remit, “so we’re carefully trying to keep that DNA thread from the ‘old’ Hammer but keep it relevant and modern. You can’t reinvent the wheel with these things, but you can always spin it a bit differently…”

“Our version of The Abominable Snowman will have something of the uncanny about it,” continues Oakes, “and it’ll have the mythology, and all the big [original writer] Nigel Kneale ideas of man and beast and nature. It won’t be heavily special effects-driven. It’ll align itself with the characters and the threat. John and Matthew are both super writers, and they’ll do a great job.”

I’ve been predicting it for years, that a wave of Yeti movies were on the way. In the wake of Icon Films television documentary and Dr. Byran Sykes groundbreaking news of a new species of Yeti-bear to be discovered in the Himalayas, popular culture will soon follow with new Abominable Snowmen films.

One of them appears to have been announced today, November 21, 2013.

Hammer Films of the UK says they are going to produce an updated version of 1957 iconic famed motion picture The Abominable Snowman as a new feature film.

According to news from the Hollywood Reporter:

The original screenplay by Matthew Read (Pusher, Hammer of the Gods) and Jon Croker (The Woman In Black: Angel of Death) updates the 1957 film from Hammer’s classic library.

The update is being developed by Hammer in association with producer Ben Holden, whose resume boasts The Quiet Ones and The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, both with Exclusive.

The project marks a continuation of Hammer’s ongoing aim to maintain a heritage of producing enduring British horror films, which are original, current and relevant for modern audiences.

It follows The Woman in Black, which starred Daniel Radcliffe and became the most successful British horror film of all time at the box office.

Hammer president & CEO and Exclusive Media vice chairman Simon Oakes said: “The success of Let Me In and The Woman In Black has shown that there is an appetite for quality horror films, so it is exciting to draw on Hammer’s unparalleled source material in this genre, which can be re-imagined and updated for a new audience.”

According to these early reports, there is no director, start date or cast attached for Snowman.