Revealing the Struggle Among Director and Screenwriter of The Wicker Man

A script written by Anthony Shaffer and featuring a horror icon and the lead actor could have been a dream project for filmmaker Robin Hardy during the filming of The Wicker Man over 50 years ago.

Even though it is now celebrated as a cult horror masterpiece, the extent of misery it brought the production team has now been revealed in previously unpublished letters and script drafts.

The Storyline of The Wicker Man

This 1973 movie revolves around a puritan police officer, played by Edward Woodward, who travels on an isolated Scottish isle in search of a missing girl, but finds mysterious pagan residents who claim the girl was real. the actress was cast as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who seduces the God-fearing officer, with Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Creative Tensions Uncovered

But the creative atmosphere was frayed and fractious, the documents show. In a letter to the writer, Hardy wrote: “How dare you handle me like this?”

The screenwriter had already made his name with masterpieces like Sleuth, but his typed draft of The Wicker Man shows Hardy’s brutal cuts to his work.

Heavy edits feature Summerisle’s lines in the ending, which would have begun: “The girl was but the tip of the iceberg – the part that showed. Don’t blame yourself, it was impossible for you to know.”

Apart from Writer and Director

Conflict escalated beyond the main pair. A producer wrote: “Shaffer’s talent was marred by a self-indulgence that impels him to prove himself too clever by half.”

In a letter to the producers, Hardy complained about the film’s editor, the editing specialist: “I believe he likes the subject or approach of the picture … and thinks that he has had enough of it.”

In one letter, Christopher Lee referred to the film as “alluring and enigmatic”, despite “dealing with a garrulous producer, an underpaid and harassed writer and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Lost Papers Found

An extensive correspondence relating to the film was among multiple bags of papers left in the attic of the former home of the director’s spouse, his wife. There were also previously unseen scripts, storyboards, on-set photographs and budget records, many of which show the struggles experienced by the team.

The director’s children Justin and Dominic, now 60 and 63, have drawn on the material for a forthcoming book, called Children of The Wicker Man. It reveals the intense stress on Hardy throughout the production of the movie – from his heart attack to financial ruin.

Family Fallout

Initially, the movie failed commercially and, following of its failure, the director abandoned his spouse and his family for a fresh start in America. Legal letters reveal his wife as an unacknowledged producer and that Hardy was indebted to her up to £1m in today’s money. She had to sell their house and died in 1984, aged 51, suffering from alcoholism, unaware that her film eventually became a global hit.

Justin, a Bafta-nominated historian film-maker, called The Wicker Man as “the movie that messed up my family”.

When he was contacted by a woman who had moved into the former family home, inquiring if he wanted to retrieve the documents, his first thought was to suggest destroying “the bloody things”.

But afterward he and his brother opened up the bags and understood the importance of their contents.

Insights from the Papers

Dominic, an art historian, said: “All the big players is represented. We discovered the first draft by Shaffer, but with dad’s annotations as filmmaker, ‘controlling’ Shaffer’s overexuberance. Because he was formerly a barrister, Shaffer did a lot of overexplaining and dad just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They sort of loved each other and hated each other.”

Compiling the publication has brought some “closure”, Justin said.

Monetary Struggles

His family did not profit monetarily from the production, he added: “This movie has gone on to make so much money for other people. It’s beyond a joke. Dad agreed to take a small fee. So he never received any of the upside. Christopher Lee also did not get any money from it as well, although that he did his role for no pay, to get out of his previous studio. Therefore, it’s been a harsh experience.”