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A script crafted by Anthony Shaffer and featuring Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward should have been a dream project for filmmaker Robin Hardy while the production of The Wicker Man more than half a century 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revered as a cult horror masterpiece, the extent of misery it brought the production team is now revealed in previously unpublished letters and script drafts.

The Storyline of This Classic Film

The 1973 film centers on a devout policeman, portrayed by the actor, who arrives on a remote Scottish island in search of a lost child, only to encounter mysterious pagan residents who claim the girl was real. the actress appeared as an innkeeper’s sexually liberated daughter, who seduces the religious policeman, with Lee as the pagan aristocrat.

Creative Tensions Uncovered

However, the working environment was frayed and contentious, the documents show. In a message to Shaffer, the director wrote: “How could you handle me this way?”

Shaffer was already famous with acclaimed works such as Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man shows Hardy’s brutal cuts to his work.

Extensive crossings-out include the aristocrat’s dialogue in the ending, originally starting: “The child was but the tip of the iceberg – the part that showed. Do not reproach yourself, it was impossible you could have known.”

Apart from Writer and Director

Conflict escalated beyond the main pair. One of the producers wrote: “Shaffer’s talent was marred by a self-indulgence that impels him to prove himself overly smart.”

In a letter to the production team, the director complained about the editor, the editing specialist: “I believe he likes the subject or approach of the film … and feels that he has had enough of it.”

In a correspondence, Christopher Lee described the movie as “appealing and enigmatic”, even with “dealing with a talkative producer, a stressed screenwriter and a well-paid but difficult director”.

Lost Documents Uncovered

An extensive correspondence relating to the production was among multiple bags of papers forgotten in the loft of the old house of Hardy’s third wife, Caroline. Included were unpublished drafts, storyboards, on-set photographs and financial accounts, many of which reflect the struggles faced by the film-makers.

Hardy’s sons Justin and Dominic, currently in their sixties, have drawn on the material for an upcoming publication, called Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the intense stress faced by the director throughout the production of the film – from his heart attack to financial ruin.

Family Consequences

At first, the film failed commercially and, following the disappointment, the director abandoned his wife and their children for a fresh start in America. Court documents reveal Caroline as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that he owed her as much as £1m in today’s money. She had to give up their house and died in 1984, aged 51, battling addiction, unaware that the project later turned into a global hit.

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

When someone reached out by a woman who had moved into the former family home, 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 stepbrother Dominic opened up the bags and understood the importance of what they held.

Revelations from the Papers

His brother, an art historian, commented: “Every key figure are in there. We discovered the first draft by the writer, but with dad’s annotations as filmmaker, ‘controlling’ Shaffer’s overexuberance. Because he was formerly a barrister, he did a lot of overexplaining and dad just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They respected each other and hated each other.”

Compiling the publication provided some “resolution”, the son stated.

Monetary Hardships

The family never benefited monetarily from the film, he explained: “This movie earned a fortune for other people. It’s beyond a joke. His father agreed to take five grand. So he never received any of the upside. The actor never received payment from it either, despite the fact that he did the film for no pay, to get out of his previous studio. So, in many ways, it’s been a very unkind film.”