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~walks in, slides folded up piece of paper across the table and runs like the devil himself is behind him (and perhaps he is)~

When enfolded you read with shaking hands the followng scrawled on toilet paper in crayon:

November 18: Warners gets WICKER

Paging through a section devoted to production outfit Nu Image/Millennum Films in the American Film Market issue of Variety, Fango came across an interesting bit of news: Warner Bros. will be releasing the company’s remake of THE WICKER MAN next year. Written and directed by Neil LaBute, the film stars Nicolas Cage as a sheriff who travels to a remote island in search of his missing daughter. There he discovers that the female residents are part of a cult who engage in strange sexual rituals. In the trade, Nu Image/Millennium’s Boaz Davidson had this to say about the project:

“Because it was a remake, we spent a lot of time in developing the script. The original movie took place in another time and era, and we wanted to adapt it for a newer audience. So we went through a lot of stages—because it’s kind of a tricky script—working very closely with Neil. This was quite different from his other movies. He’s never done a remake before, and I don’t think that he’s really done a genre movie before, especially anything as scary as this.” WICKER MAN co-stars Ellen (THE EXORCIST) Burstyn, Leelee (JOYRIDE) Sobieski, Molly (INTENSITY) Parker and Frances (SIX FEET UNDER) Conroy. —Michael Gingold

www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=5133
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
Written and directed by Neil LaBute, the film stars Nicolas Cage as a sheriff who travels to a remote island in search of his missing daughter. There he discovers that the female residents are part of a cult who engage in strange sexual rituals. In the trade, Nu Image/Millennium’s Boaz Davidson had this to say about the project....

“Because it was a remake, we spent a lot of time in developing the script. The original movie took place in another time and era, and we wanted to adapt it for a newer audience. So we went through a lot of stages—because it’s kind of a tricky script—working very closely with Neil.

They've removed at least two elements of the mythic themes from the film already, the virgin, the man who comes with the authority of the king, they've shifted the location, want to bet they've given it an upbeat ending?

What's the point of remaking something when you remove all elements that make it special? This is just going to be another sinister hicks from the sticks movie....

I managed to get the two-disk DVD with the extended verison for £2.99 on Saturday.
 
Just watched a tape of the BBC4 Kirsty Wark prog with Wicker Man contributors - Whatever happened to the new proposed Robin Hardy/Lee film (not a sequel they stressed)- called "Mayday" - it's not yet listed on imdb.com that I can see - or under Christopher Lee's entries.


=
-
 
The 2 disc SE is currently in the Amazon.co.uk sale for £3.97:

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000 ... ntmagaz-21

DVD Special Features:

Disc One:

Original Theatrical Version of The Wicker Man (84 mins) with Dolby 5.1 soundtrack
"The Wicker Man Enigma" Documentary (35 mins)
Interview with Christopher Lee (25 mins)
Theatrical Trailer
TV Spot
Radio Spots (x3)
Talent Biographies
DVD-ROM downloadable pages from original theatrical press brochure

Disc Two

The Wicker Man - The Director's Cut (99 mins)
Feature length commentary with Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward, Director Robin Hardy and moderated by Mark Kermode (UK exclusive recorded December 2001)
Easter Egg--footage of commentary team meeting and preparing
 
Here we go -

An inbred island, off the coast of the States, which is run by a very wicked and cruel ENGLISHMAN, where the nasty and (probably foreign) non-Christian goings-on are foiled by a young, good-looking AMERICAN hero who discovers an anti-American plot and calls up the military might of the US of A to destroy such licentious and unpatriotic goings-on.

This is not a rant against Americans. It is a rant against the small-minded and pathetically inept storymakers of Hollywood who are willing to take another idea, lick up a variation of the plot to the current politics and claim the money for a "BLOCKBUSTER!"

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Okay - so the original isn't exactly Hollywood in style but ... the plot itself is very English. The theme of inbreeding and private power isn't exactly new to the States but the essential point of the "Wicker Man" is a use of very ancient mythology that has nothing to do with the New World, American Indians notwithstanding.

I'd be uncomfortable with an English remake of the story - the idea that only Hollywood has the money, technical know-how and willingness to re-make it leaves me with a very cold chill...
 
I hope there are ninjas in the remake. If there's one thing the original film lacked, it's ninjas.
 
Oh and a link to The Da Vinci Code. There must be some link to the Templars, Opus Dei and the "lost" bloodline of Christ.
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
The 2 disc SE is currently in the Amazon.co.uk sale for £3.97:

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000 ... ntmagaz-21

DVD Special Features:

Disc One:

Original Theatrical Version of The Wicker Man (84 mins) with Dolby 5.1 soundtrack
"The Wicker Man Enigma" Documentary (35 mins)
Interview with Christopher Lee (25 mins)
Theatrical Trailer
TV Spot
Radio Spots (x3)
Talent Biographies
DVD-ROM downloadable pages from original theatrical press brochure

Disc Two

The Wicker Man - The Director's Cut (99 mins)
Feature length commentary with Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward, Director Robin Hardy and moderated by Mark Kermode (UK exclusive recorded December 2001)
Easter Egg--footage of commentary team meeting and preparing

I got this one for £2.99 at Silver Screen in P'boro just before Crimble.
 
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

The charm of the original was its quirky Britishness.

We all know that there are weirdo religious cults in America. Hell just look at the Bush administration, but the real edge of 'The Wicker Man' was that at the time it was made there were still parts of Scotland primordal and ancient in feel.

There were still isolated island communities who retained only the flimsiest of contact with the wider world. There were strange victorians who tried to re-establish the 'old ways'.

As dated as the film seems now the final scene with the policeman vainly pleading to the divine whilst the flames climb around him is still as harrowing today as it was then.


edited by TheQuixote: removed an amount of 'R's' in 'ARRRGH' to stop it breaking the forum
 
rjmrjmrjm said:
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

The charm of the original was its quirky Britishness.

Amongst other changes made to Robert Hardy's 1973 original, this time the community has shifted from a patriarchal to a matriarchal society and Cage's character has changed from a repressed Christian to a man haunted by his past.

Oh dear... we never have any of those in Hollywood films do we? Odds on he's lost his parents/children/wife in a fire.
 
tonyblair11 said:
Bush is barely religous. The god thing was used to get religous votes.

Giant owls.
 
'Wicker Man' sequel put on hold
Friday, April 4 2008, 12:27 BST

By Beth Hilton, Entertainment Reporter


Rex Features
A planned sequel to cult horror movie The Wicker Man has been shelved.

Original director Robin Hardy was writing and producing a follow-up under the title Cowboys For Christ, with Christopher Lee and Joan Collins attached to star.

It was scheduled to begin shooting later this month in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, the same location as the 1973 classic starring Edward Woodward.

However, Hollywood News reports that it has now been put on indefinite hold due to financing problems.

Dumfries and Galloway councillor Gill Dykes said the news was a blow to residents of the area, telling the BBC: “The company were about to start casting for extras, and around 90 crew and cast were booked into local accommodation for a four-week period.

"We will maintain contact with this interesting project and I can only hope we'll be top of their location list if the financial problems get resolved."

A remake of the original movie was released in 2006 starring Nicolas Cage.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/a930 ... -hold.html
 
Somewhere on the Board - though not, it seems on this thread - I wrote about the sacrificial plot of The Wicker Man as prefigured in the 1967 picture Eye of the Devil. I have never seen that film and came across references to it accidentally.

What I did see recently was Hammer's 1966 flick, The Plague of the Zombies.

This has many Wicker Man elements, though it lacks the magic. André Morell plays a distinguished scientist who travels to a remote region - Cornwall - to investigate a mysterious plague. The scientist soon gets the cooperation of a local uniformed bobby and the digging up of empty graves gives them a clue. Well the wicked local squire is at the heart of it with some heterodox beliefs and the whole thing ends in a conflagration, the collapsing pit-head just lacks the rising sun behind it . . . :shock:
 
I mentioned before, on a discussion where members of production, crew and cast where reunited , they, including Lee spoke about a possible sequel which then was called "Mayday".
A better title than "Cowboys for Christ"

-
 
Sing-along-a-Lee.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/jun/11/sing-along-a-wicker-man

Why Sing-along-a-Wicker-Man hits all the wrong notes

The cult horror film's soundtrack is oddly delightful, but screenings where audiences can join in on the songs will just undermine its eerie menace

guardian.co.uk Danny Leigh Friday 11 June 2010

I can't think of many films apparently concerning an unsolved child murder that could also serve as the basis for a jaunty singalong. But there is The Wicker Man. Because in the 37 years that director Robin Hardy's delirious tale of pagan jiggery pokery in the Hebrides has been accumulating fans (among which I happily count myself), chief among the attractions has been its various musical numbers: toe-tappers like the cheerfully frenzied Maypole and folky mating call Willow's Song.

And now cinema-goers in south London have the chance to join in, as Brixton's Ritzy becomes the latest venue to host an evening of Summer Isle madness titled "Sing-along-a-Wicker-Man" (there have been and will be other dates around the country). There, fans will be given lyric sheets to relevant tunes, and (featuring, you assume, a significant number of homemade robes) a screening of the film will be transformed into a roaring knees-up.

...
All together now:

Sumer is icumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweþ sed and bloweþ med

And springþ þe wde nu,
Sing cuccu!
Awe bleteþ after lomb,
Lhouþ after calue cu.
Bulluc sterteþ, bucke uerteþ,
Murie sing cuccu!
Cuccu, cuccu, wel þu singes cuccu;

Ne swik þu nauer nu.
Pes:

Sing cuccu nu. Sing cuccu.
Sing cuccu. Sing cuccu nu!


:rofl:
 
Oh, I'm so there. :D

I can make theatrical costumes too. Gonna have fuuuun. Who else is coming? I can run you up a frock! ;)
 
Wicker Man ladies' costumes?
I can do those too! 8)

Get your order in early. ;)
 
You mean you'll organise a body double for the ladies?

I don't think it will work quite as well as for an actual musical. Nor do I see them showing it at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco.
 
It needs to be an interactive show. I recall reading about Point Break: Live - as stage production of the film, which incorporates a random audience members in simulation of Keanu's perfectly-pitched performance as a non-comprehending rookie. I seem to recall reading that the audience gets splashed with lots of salt water and blood. Great premise, but apparently the show wasn't up to much. I see an opening for The Wicker Man: Live
 
And you can wrap it up with a nice barbeque!
 
Sing along a Wickerman played at the Brighton Fringe and I had tickets, unfortunately the silghtly vague organisers double booked the show so offered the organiser an alternative venue of the bar at the same venue :roll: . Needless to say he declined.

Still it's a regular feature at the Duke of Yorks cinema in Brighton every Halloween.

One of these years I must find an 'obby 'oss costume to attend in.
 
If any of you folks are in the Dundee area this event at the Dundee Contemporary Arts place may be of interest

Allan Brown
Inside the Wicker Man - with screening of unseen footage
7.30pm
FREE

Inside The Wicker Man is a treat for all cinemagoers, exhaustively researched and achieving a near-perfect balance between history, trivia and serious analysis.

Allan Brown describes the filming and distribution of the cult masterpiece as a 'textbook example of how things should never be done'. The omens were bad from the start, and proceeded to get much, much worse, with fake blossom on trees to simulate spring, actors chomping on ice-cubes to prevent their breath showing on film, and verbal and physical confrontations involving both cast and crew. The studio hated it and hardly bothered to distribute it, but today it finds favour with critics and fans alike, as a serious - if flawed - piece of cinema.

Allan Brown expertly guides readers through the film's convoluted history, explaining its enduring fascination and providing interviews with the key figures - many of whom still have an axe to grind, and some of whom still harbour hopes for a sequel

This event will be held at DCA and followed by a screening of the film - contact DCA for details 01382 909900.
 
Oops forgot to mention it's on the 26th of June and add this bit:

The Wickerman Film screening
9.15pm - 10.55pm
at DCA

Dir: Robin Hardy

Far too well known by now to still be a cult movie, The Wicker Man must instead take its place as the most unlikely classic in British cinema.

The plot is Dixon of Dock Green meets Hammer Horror; a selection of blonde European women play Scots (Ingrid Pitt is also cast as a librarian?); Christopher Lee runs around in a dress; and the studio hacked it to pieces. Yet somehow, against the odds, The Wicker Man is utterly compelling, and remains so even after countless viewings.

It helps that Anthony Shaffer’s script has more than its share of memorable lines (of course they’re naked . . . it’s far too dangerous to run through fire with your clothes on) and that Robin Hardy directs it all with a keen eye for the camp and the absurd.

What really elevates the film however is the central performance of the late Edward Woodward as the god-fearing policeman lured to the island. Woodward is in virtually every scene and carries the film with him as he gives a complex portrait of a good, but not always likeable man, whose prim exterior hides a bottomless well of repressed anger and passion.

UK 1978 / 1h28m / Digital / 15

Please see the DCA website for details - www.dca.org.uk.
 
Thanks for that, I'm in Dundee and will certainly go.
 
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