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A script crafted by the acclaimed writer and featuring Christopher Lee and the lead actor should have been an ideal venture for filmmaker Robin Hardy during the filming of The Wicker Man over 50 years ago.

Even though today it is revered as a cult horror masterpiece, the extent of misery it brought the production team is now revealed in newly discovered letters and script drafts.

The Plot of This Classic Film

This 1973 movie centers on a puritan police officer, portrayed by Edward Woodward, who travels on a remote Scottish island in search of a missing girl, only to encounter mysterious pagan residents who deny she ever existed. the actress appeared as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who tempts the religious policeman, with Christopher Lee as the pagan aristocrat.

Creative Tensions Revealed

However, the working environment was tense and contentious, the documents show. In a letter to the writer, Hardy wrote: “How dare you treat me like this?”

Shaffer was already famous with masterpieces like Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man reveals the director’s harsh edits to his work.

Extensive crossings-out feature Summerisle’s lines in the ending, which would have begun: “The child was only a small part – the visible element. Don’t blame yourself, there was no way you could have known.”

Beyond Writer and Director

Conflict escalated beyond the main pair. A producer wrote: “The writer’s skill has been offset by excessive indulgence that impels him to show he was overly smart.”

In a note to the producers, the director complained about the editor, Eric Boyd-Perkins: “I believe he appreciates the theme or style of the film … and feels that he is tired of it.”

In a correspondence, Lee referred to the film as “alluring and enigmatic”, despite “having to cope with a talkative producer, a stressed screenwriter and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Forgotten Papers Uncovered

A large collection of letters relating to the production was part of six sack-loads of documents forgotten in the loft of the old house of Hardy’s third wife, his wife. There were also unpublished drafts, storyboards, production photos and financial accounts, which reflect the struggles faced by the film-makers.

Hardy’s sons his two sons, currently in their sixties, used the material for an upcoming publication, titled Children of The Wicker Man. It reveals the extreme pressures on Hardy throughout the making of the movie – from his heart attack to bankruptcy.

Family Consequences

Initially, the film was a box office flop and, in the aftermath of its failure, Hardy abandoned his spouse and their children for a fresh start in the US. Legal letters show Caroline as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that he owed her as much as £1m in today’s money. She was forced to give up their house and died in 1984, aged 51, suffering from alcoholism, never knowing that the project later turned into an international success.

Justin, an acclaimed documentary maker, called The Wicker Man as “the film that ruined our family”.

When someone reached out by a resident who had moved into his mother’s old house, inquiring if he wished to collect the sacks of papers, his first thought was to propose burning “the bloody things”.

But afterward he and his stepbrother Dominic examined the sacks and realised the significance of what they held.

Insights from the Documents

Dominic, an art historian, said: “All the big players is represented. We found the first draft by the writer, but with his father’s notes as filmmaker, ‘containing’ the writer’s excess. Due to his legal background, he tended to overwrite and dad just went ‘cut, cut, cut’. They sort of loved each other and clashed frequently.”

Compiling the publication has brought some “resolution”, the son said.

Financial Struggles

The family never benefited financially from the production, he added: “This movie earned so much money for others. It’s beyond a joke. His father agreed to take five grand. So he never received any of the upside. Christopher Lee also did not get any money from it as well, despite the fact that he did his role for no pay, to get out of his previous studio. Therefore, it’s been a harsh experience.”