Unveiling this Conflict Between Filmmaker and Screenwriter of the Cult Classic Film

A screenplay penned by Anthony Shaffer and starring a horror icon and the lead actor was expected to be an ideal venture for director Robin Hardy while the filming of The Wicker Man more than 50 years ago.

Although today it is celebrated as an iconic horror film, the extent of turmoil it brought the film-makers is now uncovered in previously unpublished correspondence and early versions of the script.

The Storyline of This Classic Film

This 1973 movie centers on a puritan police officer, portrayed by the actor, who arrives on a remote Scottish island looking for a lost child, only to encounter mysterious pagan residents who claim she ever existed. the actress was cast as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who tempts the God-fearing officer, with Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Production Tensions Revealed

However, the working environment was frayed and contentious, according to the letters. In a message to Shaffer, the director wrote: “How could you handle me like this?”

Shaffer was already famous with masterpieces such as Sleuth, but his typed draft of The Wicker Man reveals Hardy’s brutal cuts to his work.

Heavy edits feature the aristocrat’s dialogue in the final scene, originally starting: “The child was but the tip of the iceberg – the part that showed. Don’t blame yourself, it was impossible you could have known.”

Apart from Writer and Director

Tensions boiled over outside the main pair. A producer commented: “The writer’s skill has been offset by excessive indulgence that impels him to prove himself overly smart.”

In a letter to the production team, Hardy expressed frustration about the editor, the editing specialist: “I believe he appreciates the theme or approach of the picture … and thinks that he is tired of it.”

In a correspondence, Lee described the film as “appealing and enigmatic”, even with “dealing with a garrulous producer, a stressed screenwriter and a well-paid but difficult director”.

Lost Documents Uncovered

An extensive correspondence about the production was part of multiple bags of papers forgotten in the loft of the old house of Hardy’s third wife, Caroline. Included were unpublished drafts, storyboards, on-set photographs and budget records, which reflect the struggles faced by the team.

Hardy’s sons his two sons, now 60 and 63, have drawn on these documents for an upcoming publication, called Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the intense stress faced by the director during the production of the movie – from his heart attack to financial ruin.

Family Consequences

Initially, the movie failed commercially and, in the aftermath of its failure, the director left his spouse and their children for a new life in the US. Court documents show Caroline as an unacknowledged producer and that Hardy was indebted to her as much as £1m in today’s money. She was forced to sell the family home and died in 1984, aged 51, battling alcoholism, never knowing that her film eventually became a global hit.

Justin, an acclaimed documentary maker, called The Wicker Man as “the film that messed up my family”.

When someone reached out by a woman living in his mother’s old house, inquiring if he wanted to retrieve the documents, his initial reaction was to propose destroying “the bloody things”.

But then he and his stepbrother Dominic opened up the bags and realised the importance of their contents.

Insights from the Documents

Dominic, an art historian, said: “All the big players are in there. We discovered the first draft by the writer, but with dad’s annotations as filmmaker, ‘containing’ the writer’s excess. Due to his legal background, Shaffer tended to overwrite and dad just went ‘cut, cut, cut’. They sort of loved each other and hated each other.”

Writing the book provided some “resolution”, Justin said.

Financial Hardships

The family did not profit financially from the production, he added: “This movie earned so much money for other people. It’s unfair. Dad agreed to take five grand. Thus, he missed out on the profits. Christopher Lee also did not get payment from it as well, despite the fact he performed the film for zero, to get out of Hammer [Horror films]. Therefore, it’s been a very unkind film.”