Exposing this Rift Between Director and Writer of The Wicker Man

A script penned by the acclaimed writer and featuring Christopher Lee and the lead actor should have been an ideal venture for director Robin Hardy while the production of The Wicker Man over 50 years ago.

Even though it is now celebrated as an iconic horror film, the degree of misery it caused the production team is now uncovered in previously unpublished correspondence and script drafts.

The Storyline of The Wicker Man

This 1973 movie revolves around a puritan police officer, played by the actor, who arrives on an isolated Scottish isle in search of a missing girl, only to encounter sinister local pagans who claim the girl was real. Britt Ekland appeared as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who tempts the God-fearing officer, with Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Production Conflict Revealed

However, the working environment was frayed and contentious, the documents show. In a letter to Shaffer, Hardy stated: “How could you handle me like this?”

Shaffer had already made his name with acclaimed works such as Sleuth, but his typed draft of The Wicker Man shows the director’s harsh edits to the screenplay.

Heavy edits include Summerisle’s lines in the ending, which would have begun: “The girl was only a small part – the part that showed. Don’t blame yourself, it was impossible you could have known.”

Beyond the Creative Duo

Tensions boiled over outside the main pair. One of the producers commented: “The writer’s skill has been offset by a self-indulgence that impels him to show he was overly smart.”

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

In a correspondence, Lee referred to the movie as “appealing and mysterious”, despite “dealing with a garrulous producer, a stressed screenwriter and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Forgotten Documents Uncovered

An extensive correspondence relating to the production was among six sack-loads of papers left in the loft of the former home of Hardy’s third wife, his wife. Included were previously unseen scripts, storyboards, on-set photographs and financial accounts, which reflect the challenges experienced by the film-makers.

Hardy’s sons Justin and Dominic, now 60 and 63, have drawn on these documents for an upcoming publication, titled Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the intense stress faced by Hardy throughout the production of the film – including a health crisis to financial ruin.

Family Fallout

Initially, the movie failed commercially and, following of its failure, Hardy left his spouse and his family for a new life in America. Legal letters show his wife as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that he owed her as much as a large sum. She had to give up the family home and died in 1984, aged 51, battling alcoholism, unaware that her film later turned into an international success.

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

When he was contacted by a resident living in the former family home, asking whether he wished to collect the sacks of papers, his first thought was to propose burning “the bloody things”.

But then he and his stepbrother Dominic opened up the sacks and realised the importance of what they held.

Insights from the Documents

His brother, an art historian, said: “Every key figure are in there. We found an original script by the writer, but with dad’s annotations as filmmaker, ‘containing’ the writer’s excess. Because he was formerly a barrister, he did a lot of overexplaining and his father just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They loved each other and clashed frequently.”

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

Financial Struggles

The family never benefited financially from the production, he added: “The bloody film earned a fortune for others. It’s unfair. Dad agreed to take a small fee. Thus, he missed out on any of the upside. Christopher Lee also did not get any money from it either, although he performed the film for no pay, to leave his previous studio. So, in many ways, it was a harsh experience.”