John Gore Studios Buys Susan Hill Library, Including The Woman in Black
John Gore Studios has bought all rights to the works of Dame Susan Hill, bringing The Woman in Black home to Hammer Films.
The deal was announced on 12 October 2026, as reported by Variety. John Gore Studios owns Hammer Films. Theatre owner John Gore bought the British horror label in late 2023.
Hill wrote The Woman in Black as a Gothic horror novel in 1983. Gothic horror means a ghost story built around an old house and slow dread. Its stage version ran for 33 years in London's West End, the city's main theatre district.
Hammer knows it well. Its 2012 film of The Woman in Black starred Daniel Radcliffe. It took $127.7 million at the worldwide box office, according to Variety. That run made it the highest-grossing British horror film in 20 years at the time. It also gave Hammer the biggest U.S. opening in the studio's history, meaning its first three days in American and Canadian cinemas.
Hill's career reaches far beyond one ghost story. Her novel The Bird of Night was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1972, one of Britain's leading book awards. Her honours include the Somerset Maugham Award, the Whitbread Novel Award and election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a body that recognises distinguished writers.
The plan is to develop her wider library across film and television, and in theatre where existing rights deals allow, as reported by Variety. The acquisition was led by John Gore Studios chief operating officer Anouska Spiers, the executive who runs day-to-day business. Development of new projects will be overseen by chief creative officer Francis Hopkinson and the wider creative team.
Hill will stay close to the work. She will remain actively involved in new creative projects. She will also serve as an executive producer on new adaptations, a senior credit that carries creative say over how a story reaches the screen.
What makes this stand out is the chain of ownership. A theatre owner bought a film studio. That studio has now bought the full library of the writer behind one of its largest modern cinema hits. For audiences, it puts future Hill adaptations for screen and stage under one roof.
