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A script written by the acclaimed writer and featuring a horror icon and Edward Woodward should have been a dream project for filmmaker Robin Hardy during the filming of The Wicker Man over 50 years ago.

Even though today it is celebrated as an iconic horror film, the degree of misery it brought the film-makers has now been uncovered in newly discovered letters and early versions of the script.

The Storyline of The Wicker Man

This 1973 movie revolves around a devout policeman, played by Edward Woodward, who arrives on a remote Scottish island in search of a missing girl, only to encounter sinister local pagans who claim she ever existed. the actress appeared as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who seduces the God-fearing officer, with Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Production Conflict Revealed

However, the working environment was tense and contentious, the documents show. In a message to the writer, Hardy stated: “How could you treat me this way?”

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

Heavy edits include the aristocrat’s dialogue in the final scene, which would have begun: “The girl was only a small part – the part that showed. Don’t blame yourself, it was impossible you could have known.”

Beyond Writer and Director

Tensions boiled over outside the writer and director. One of the producers wrote: “Shaffer’s talent has been offset by excessive indulgence that drove him to show he was too clever by half.”

In a note to the producers, the director expressed frustration about the editor, the editing specialist: “I don’t think he likes the subject or approach of the film … and thinks that he has had enough of it.”

In one letter, Lee described the film as “appealing and mysterious”, even with “dealing with a talkative producer, an underpaid and harassed writer and a well-paid but difficult director”.

Lost Papers Found

A large collection of letters about the production was part of multiple bags of documents forgotten in the loft of the old house of Hardy’s third wife, Caroline. There were also unpublished drafts, visual plans, on-set photographs and financial accounts, many of which show the challenges experienced by the team.

Hardy’s sons his two sons, now 60 and 63, have drawn on the material for a forthcoming book, titled Children of The Wicker Man. It reveals the intense stress on Hardy throughout the making of the movie – including a health crisis to financial ruin.

Personal Fallout

At first, the movie was a box office flop and, in the aftermath of its failure, the director left his wife and their children for a fresh start in America. Legal letters show his wife as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that he was indebted to her up to a large sum. She had to sell the family home and passed away in the 1980s, aged 51, battling alcoholism, never knowing that her film later turned into an international success.

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

When he was contacted by a resident who had moved into his mother’s old house, asking whether he wanted to retrieve the documents, his initial reaction was to propose burning “all of it”.

But then he and his brother examined the sacks and realised the importance of their contents.

Revelations from the Papers

Dominic, a scholar, said: “Every key figure are in there. We found an original script by Shaffer, but with his father’s notes as filmmaker, ‘containing’ the writer’s excess. Because he was formerly a barrister, Shaffer tended to overwrite and dad just went ‘cut, cut, cut’. They sort of respected each other and hated each other.”

Writing the book has brought some “resolution”, Justin said.

Monetary Struggles

The family never benefited monetarily from the production, he added: “The bloody film earned so much money for others. It’s beyond a joke. His father accepted a small fee. Thus, he missed out on the profits. The actor also did not get any money from it either, although that he did the film for no pay, to leave his previous studio. Therefore, it was a very unkind film.”