Should I Keep My Appointment With The Wicker Man?

Given my true love for the original 1973 Pagan horror/mystery/musical “The Wicker Man”, it should be taken as a sign of masochism that I keep reporting on the current remake in the works starring Nicolas “Con Air” Cage. The latest news is that the original director of the film Robin Hardy wants his name off the promotional material and has invoked the terrible power of lawyers to do it.

“The amazing thing is that all the publicity keeps on saying that I have written the screenplay, which is obviously not true. 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.”

As the new film seems to slowly ditch everything that was unique and interesting about the original, the hopes that this film will at least not be a total embarrassment decline. Perhaps the most comical moment in this latest report is on the purity of the character played by Cage (and played by Edward Woodward in the original)

“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.“

What? Are they sure about that? This just spirals further down the rabbit hole of bad film-making. At least I can look forward to May Day featuring the original director and Christopher Lee in a reimagining of the themes explored in the first Wicker Man.

Perhaps from now on I should follow Lee’s lead in commenting on the remake:

“What do I think of it? Nothing. There’s nothing to say.”

Tags: Neopaganism