The Retard
01-20-2006, 05:44 PM
Wicker Man director is flaming furious (http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1921042005)
BRIAN PENDREIGH
HE gave the world arguably the most iconic Scottish film ever made but a US remake which adds a swarm of killer bees and changes the sex of a pagan lord has proved too much for Robin Hardy.
The original director of The Wicker Man has called in his lawyers to have his name taken off promotional material for the $40m movie even before lead star Nicolas Cage has finished filming.
"The amazing thing is that all the publicity keeps on saying that I have written the screenplay, which is obviously not true," says Hardy, who did not even take a writing credit on the original, though he worked closely with writer Anthony Shaffer.
"I have had to have my lawyers call them, not because I particularly care, but it's clearly wrong that it should be out on websites and in the trades and everything."
In the original, Christopher Lee played Lord Summerisle, head of a pagan community on a remote Scottish island where locals resort to human sacrifice when the crops fail.
In the new version, set in the US, his character will be played by Ellen Burstyn, who won the best actress Oscar for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and also played the mother in The Exorcist.
Controversy is raging in cyberspace, with fans posting messages on the Internet Movie Database headed "What happened to Scotland?", "Why do Americans have to mess with perfection?" and "What the flipping Hell?"
Hollywood has fallen flat on its face in the recent past attempting to remake British classics in American settings.
Get Carter substituted Seattle for Newcastle and Sylvester Stallone for Michael Caine, while Alfie relocated from Swinging Sixties London to modern-day New York, with Jude Law in place of Caine.
Hardy is highly sceptical about the new Wicker Man. "I don't quite understand what they're doing. It appears that not only is the lady involved, but there are also attacks by killer bees, which sounds like a really old-style horror film."
The original Wicker Man was firmly rooted in Scotland. Hardy and Shaffer carried out extensive research on pagan rituals and were fascinated by references to a giant wicker man, in which Druids supposedly burned prisoners (though this may have been Roman propaganda).
They freely mixed folklore and music from different parts of Britain, but chose Scotland as the setting because of its history of fundamentalist religious sects and remote communities. The film combined locations all over Galloway with footage from Culzean Castle in Ayrshire and Plockton in Wester Ross, and aerial shots of Skye.
Edward Woodward played an upright Scottish police sergeant and devout Christian, who arrives on the island to investigate the sinister disappearance of a young girl. Cage is an American sheriff in the new version, which is currently shooting with Canada doubling for Maine.
In the original, Woodward's character was a virgin, making him ideal for sacrifice. That element has been ditched from the remake, because it was thought that while audiences would accept the idea of an American community that practised human sacrifice, the idea of a grown-up virgin was just too farfetched.
Instead, Cage's character has acquired a serious allergy to bees and travels with a bee-sting kit, as well as rosary beads and self-help tapes.
In an attempt to give the story a feminist slant, writer-director Neil LaBute has turned the island into a matriarchal society, headed by Burstyn.
Christopher Lee, who regards The Wicker Man as his best film, has been critical of the remake plans.
"What do I think of it being played by a woman, when it was played by a man in 1972, as part of a Scottish pagan community, and now it's played by a woman with the same name? What do I think of it? Nothing. There's nothing to say."
A spokesman for the production company Emmett/Furla in Beverly Hills refused to discuss the film beyond confirmation of the casting.
The Wicker Man is widely regarded as a masterpiece for the unique way it mixed horror, music and folklore, though cinema chains did not want it when it was completed in 1973. A cut-down version finally went out the following year as the bottom half of a double bill.
The film gradually acquired a cult following. Interest was fuelled by rumours that lost footage had been buried in the foundations of the M3 and stories that Rod Stewart wanted to buy the negative and destroy it because of girlfriend Britt Ekland's nude scenes. Three different versions survive and have been shown on television and released on video. There have been articles and books about the film, a Wicker Man festival and even an academic conference.
Meanwhile, Hardy and Lee have been developing a film of their own that will revisit the theme of paganism in modern Scotland.
The story was originally called The Riding of the Laddie, is now called May Day, and follows two young American evangelists, who discover the Border ridings are more than just a quaint tourist attraction.
It has been a long haul, but Hardy now has a deal with the Scottish publisher Luath to bring out the story in the form of a novel next year. He has 80% of the £3m budget in place for the film, with much of money ironically coming from Canada, and he hopes to shoot in Scotland and Texas in the spring.
Vanessa Redgrave and Sean Astin, from The Lord of the Rings, are committed to the film.
BRIAN PENDREIGH
HE gave the world arguably the most iconic Scottish film ever made but a US remake which adds a swarm of killer bees and changes the sex of a pagan lord has proved too much for Robin Hardy.
The original director of The Wicker Man has called in his lawyers to have his name taken off promotional material for the $40m movie even before lead star Nicolas Cage has finished filming.
"The amazing thing is that all the publicity keeps on saying that I have written the screenplay, which is obviously not true," says Hardy, who did not even take a writing credit on the original, though he worked closely with writer Anthony Shaffer.
"I have had to have my lawyers call them, not because I particularly care, but it's clearly wrong that it should be out on websites and in the trades and everything."
In the original, Christopher Lee played Lord Summerisle, head of a pagan community on a remote Scottish island where locals resort to human sacrifice when the crops fail.
In the new version, set in the US, his character will be played by Ellen Burstyn, who won the best actress Oscar for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and also played the mother in The Exorcist.
Controversy is raging in cyberspace, with fans posting messages on the Internet Movie Database headed "What happened to Scotland?", "Why do Americans have to mess with perfection?" and "What the flipping Hell?"
Hollywood has fallen flat on its face in the recent past attempting to remake British classics in American settings.
Get Carter substituted Seattle for Newcastle and Sylvester Stallone for Michael Caine, while Alfie relocated from Swinging Sixties London to modern-day New York, with Jude Law in place of Caine.
Hardy is highly sceptical about the new Wicker Man. "I don't quite understand what they're doing. It appears that not only is the lady involved, but there are also attacks by killer bees, which sounds like a really old-style horror film."
The original Wicker Man was firmly rooted in Scotland. Hardy and Shaffer carried out extensive research on pagan rituals and were fascinated by references to a giant wicker man, in which Druids supposedly burned prisoners (though this may have been Roman propaganda).
They freely mixed folklore and music from different parts of Britain, but chose Scotland as the setting because of its history of fundamentalist religious sects and remote communities. The film combined locations all over Galloway with footage from Culzean Castle in Ayrshire and Plockton in Wester Ross, and aerial shots of Skye.
Edward Woodward played an upright Scottish police sergeant and devout Christian, who arrives on the island to investigate the sinister disappearance of a young girl. Cage is an American sheriff in the new version, which is currently shooting with Canada doubling for Maine.
In the original, Woodward's character was a virgin, making him ideal for sacrifice. That element has been ditched from the remake, because it was thought that while audiences would accept the idea of an American community that practised human sacrifice, the idea of a grown-up virgin was just too farfetched.
Instead, Cage's character has acquired a serious allergy to bees and travels with a bee-sting kit, as well as rosary beads and self-help tapes.
In an attempt to give the story a feminist slant, writer-director Neil LaBute has turned the island into a matriarchal society, headed by Burstyn.
Christopher Lee, who regards The Wicker Man as his best film, has been critical of the remake plans.
"What do I think of it being played by a woman, when it was played by a man in 1972, as part of a Scottish pagan community, and now it's played by a woman with the same name? What do I think of it? Nothing. There's nothing to say."
A spokesman for the production company Emmett/Furla in Beverly Hills refused to discuss the film beyond confirmation of the casting.
The Wicker Man is widely regarded as a masterpiece for the unique way it mixed horror, music and folklore, though cinema chains did not want it when it was completed in 1973. A cut-down version finally went out the following year as the bottom half of a double bill.
The film gradually acquired a cult following. Interest was fuelled by rumours that lost footage had been buried in the foundations of the M3 and stories that Rod Stewart wanted to buy the negative and destroy it because of girlfriend Britt Ekland's nude scenes. Three different versions survive and have been shown on television and released on video. There have been articles and books about the film, a Wicker Man festival and even an academic conference.
Meanwhile, Hardy and Lee have been developing a film of their own that will revisit the theme of paganism in modern Scotland.
The story was originally called The Riding of the Laddie, is now called May Day, and follows two young American evangelists, who discover the Border ridings are more than just a quaint tourist attraction.
It has been a long haul, but Hardy now has a deal with the Scottish publisher Luath to bring out the story in the form of a novel next year. He has 80% of the £3m budget in place for the film, with much of money ironically coming from Canada, and he hopes to shoot in Scotland and Texas in the spring.
Vanessa Redgrave and Sean Astin, from The Lord of the Rings, are committed to the film.