🔗 Share this article Exposing this Conflict Between Filmmaker and Writer of the Cult Classic Film A script penned by Anthony Shaffer and featuring Christopher Lee and the lead actor should have been an ideal venture for director Robin Hardy during the production of The Wicker Man more than half a century ago. Although today it is revered as a cult horror masterpiece, the extent of misery it brought the film-makers has now been uncovered in newly discovered letters and script drafts. The Plot of This Classic Film The 1973 film revolves around a puritan police officer, played by the actor, who travels on a remote Scottish island in search of a missing girl, only to encounter mysterious pagan residents who deny she ever existed. Britt Ekland was cast as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who tempts the religious policeman, with Lee as Lord Summerisle. Creative Tensions Uncovered But the creative atmosphere was frayed and fractious, the documents show. In a message to the writer, the director wrote: “How could you handle me this way?” The screenwriter had already made his name with acclaimed works like Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man reveals the director’s harsh edits to his work. Extensive crossings-out include the aristocrat’s dialogue in the final scene, originally starting: “The girl was only a small part – the part that showed. Do not reproach yourself, it was impossible you could have known.” Apart from Writer and Director Conflict escalated beyond the writer and director. A producer commented: “Shaffer’s talent was marred by excessive indulgence that impels him to prove himself too clever by half.” In a note to the producers, the director complained about the film’s editor, Eric Boyd-Perkins: “I don’t think he likes the subject or style of the picture … and thinks that he has had enough of it.” In one letter, Christopher Lee referred to the movie as “alluring and enigmatic”, even with “dealing with a garrulous producer, an underpaid and harassed writer and an overpaid and hostile director”. Lost Documents Uncovered An extensive correspondence relating to the film was part of multiple bags of documents left in the attic of the former home of Hardy’s third wife, his wife. There were also unpublished drafts, visual plans, production photos and financial accounts, which reflect the challenges experienced by the team. The director’s children Justin and Dominic, now 60 and 63, used these documents for an upcoming publication, called Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the intense stress on Hardy during the making of the film – from his heart attack to financial ruin. Personal Consequences At first, the movie was a box office flop and, in the aftermath of its failure, Hardy abandoned his spouse and their children for a new life in the US. Legal letters reveal Caroline as an unacknowledged producer and that Hardy was indebted to her up to a large sum. She was forced to sell the family home and died in 1984, aged 51, suffering from alcoholism, never knowing that her film eventually became an international success. Justin, a Bafta-nominated historian film-maker, described The Wicker Man as “the movie that ruined my family”. When he was contacted by a woman living in his mother’s old house, asking whether he wished to retrieve the documents, his initial reaction was to suggest destroying “the bloody things”. But then he and his stepbrother Dominic examined the bags and understood the importance of their contents. Insights from the Papers His brother, a scholar, commented: “All the big players is represented. We discovered an original script by the writer, but with dad’s annotations as filmmaker, ‘containing’ Shaffer’s overexuberance. Due to his legal background, he tended to overwrite and dad just went ‘cut, cut, cut’. They loved each other and hated each other.” Compiling the publication has brought some “closure”, Justin stated. Monetary Hardships The family never benefited monetarily from the film, he added: “The bloody film earned so much money for other people. It’s unfair. His father accepted a small fee. So he never received the profits. The actor also did not get any money from it as well, although he performed the film for zero, to get out of Hammer [Horror films]. So, in many ways, it’s been a harsh experience.”