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A screenplay penned by Anthony Shaffer and starring a horror icon and Edward Woodward could have been a dream project for filmmaker Robin Hardy while the production of The Wicker Man over half a century ago.

Although today it is revered as a cult horror masterpiece, the extent of misery it brought the production team has now been revealed in newly discovered letters and early versions of the script.

The Plot of The Wicker Man

The 1973 film revolves around a devout policeman, played by Edward Woodward, who travels on a remote Scottish island looking for a missing girl, but finds sinister local pagans who deny the girl was real. Britt Ekland appeared as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who tempts the God-fearing officer, with Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Creative Tensions Uncovered

But the creative atmosphere was frayed and contentious, the documents show. In a message to Shaffer, Hardy wrote: “How could you treat me like this?”

Shaffer had already made his name with acclaimed works like Sleuth, but his typed draft of The Wicker Man reveals Hardy’s brutal cuts to the screenplay.

Heavy edits feature Summerisle’s lines in the final scene, which would have begun: “The girl was but the tip of the iceberg – the visible element. Do not reproach yourself, it was impossible for you to know.”

Beyond the Creative Duo

Conflict escalated beyond the writer and director. A producer wrote: “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 producers, the director expressed frustration about the film’s editor, Eric Boyd-Perkins: “I don’t think he likes the theme or approach of the film … and feels that he is tired of it.”

In a correspondence, Lee referred to the movie as “alluring and mysterious”, even with “having to cope with a garrulous producer, a stressed screenwriter and a well-paid but difficult director”.

Forgotten Papers Found

An extensive correspondence relating to the production was part of multiple bags of documents left in the attic of the old house of the director’s spouse, Caroline. There were also previously unseen scripts, storyboards, production photos and budget records, which show the struggles faced by the team.

Hardy’s sons his two sons, now 60 and 63, used the material for an upcoming publication, called Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the extreme pressures faced by Hardy during the production of the film – including a health crisis to financial ruin.

Personal Fallout

Initially, the film was a box office flop and, following of its failure, the director left his spouse and his family for a fresh start in America. Court documents show his wife as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that he owed her up to £1m in today’s money. She had to sell the family home and died in 1984, in her fifties, battling alcoholism, never knowing that the project eventually became an international success.

His son, a Bafta-nominated historian film-maker, called The Wicker Man as “the film that messed up our family”.

When he was contacted by a resident living in the former family home, asking whether he wanted to retrieve the sacks of papers, his first thought was to suggest destroying “the bloody things”.

But afterward he and his brother opened up the sacks and realised the importance of what they held.

Revelations from the Papers

His brother, a scholar, commented: “All the big players are in there. We found an original script by the writer, but with his father’s notes as director, ‘controlling’ Shaffer’s overexuberance. Because he was formerly a barrister, Shaffer tended to overwrite and his father just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They loved each other and clashed frequently.”

Writing the book provided some “resolution”, the son said.

Monetary Hardships

The family did not profit financially from the production, he explained: “The bloody film has gone on to make so much money for other people. It’s unfair. His father agreed to take five grand. Thus, he missed out on any of the upside. The actor also did not get payment from it as well, although he performed his role for zero, to get out of Hammer [Horror films]. So, in many ways, it’s been a very unkind film.”