🔗 Share this article Revealing this Rift Between Director and Writer of the Cult Classic Film A screenplay written by Anthony Shaffer and featuring Christopher Lee and the lead actor was expected to be an ideal venture for filmmaker Robin Hardy during the production of The Wicker Man over 50 years ago. Even though today it is celebrated as an iconic horror film, the degree of turmoil it brought the film-makers is now revealed in newly discovered correspondence and script drafts. The Storyline of This Classic Film The 1973 film revolves around a devout policeman, played by Edward Woodward, who arrives on a remote Scottish island in search of a lost child, but finds sinister local pagans who deny 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 Conflict Revealed But the creative atmosphere was tense and contentious, according to the letters. In a message to the writer, Hardy wrote: “How dare you treat me like this?” Shaffer was already famous with masterpieces such as Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man shows the director’s harsh edits to the screenplay. Heavy edits include Summerisle’s lines in the final scene, which would have begun: “The girl was only a small part – the visible element. Don’t blame yourself, there was no way for you to know.” Apart from Writer and Director Tensions boiled over outside the writer and director. One of the producers commented: “The writer’s skill was marred by excessive indulgence that impels him to show he was too clever by half.” In a note to the production team, the director complained about the editor, Eric Boyd-Perkins: “I believe he appreciates the theme or style of the film … and thinks that he has had enough of it.” In a correspondence, Christopher Lee described the film as “appealing and mysterious”, despite “having to cope with a garrulous producer, an underpaid and harassed writer and an overpaid and hostile director”. Lost Documents Uncovered A large collection of letters relating to the production was part of six sack-loads of documents left in the attic of the old house of the director’s spouse, his wife. There were also unpublished drafts, storyboards, production photos and financial accounts, many of which show the struggles faced by the team. The director’s children Justin and Dominic, now 60 and 63, have drawn on the material for a forthcoming book, titled Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the intense stress faced by Hardy throughout the production of the movie – from his heart attack to bankruptcy. Family Fallout Initially, the film was a box office flop and, in the aftermath of its failure, Hardy left his wife and his family for a fresh start in the US. Legal letters reveal his wife as an unacknowledged producer and that Hardy owed her as much as a large sum. She was forced to give up the family home and died in the 1980s, aged 51, battling addiction, never knowing that the project eventually became a global hit. His son, a Bafta-nominated historian film-maker, called The Wicker Man as “the film that messed up our family”. When someone reached out by a resident who had moved into his mother’s old house, asking whether he wanted to collect the sacks of papers, his first thought was to suggest destroying “the bloody things”. But afterward he and his brother examined the sacks and understood the importance of their contents. Insights from the Papers His brother, a scholar, commented: “All the big players is represented. We found an original script by the writer, but with dad’s annotations as filmmaker, ‘controlling’ the writer’s excess. Because he was formerly a barrister, Shaffer did a lot of overexplaining and his father just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They loved each other and clashed frequently.” Writing the book has brought some “resolution”, Justin said. Monetary Struggles His family never benefited monetarily from the film, he explained: “This movie has gone on to make so much money for other people. It’s unfair. His father agreed to take a small fee. So he never received the profits. The actor never received any money from it as well, despite the fact that he did his role for zero, to leave his previous studio. Therefore, it’s been a harsh experience.”