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A script penned by the acclaimed writer and featuring Christopher Lee and the lead actor was expected to be a dream project for filmmaker Robin Hardy during the filming of The Wicker Man over half a century ago.

Even though it is now celebrated as an iconic horror film, the extent of turmoil it brought the production team has now been uncovered in newly discovered correspondence and script drafts.

The Storyline of This Classic Film

The 1973 film centers on a devout policeman, played by Edward Woodward, who travels on an isolated Scottish isle 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 religious policeman, with Lee as the pagan aristocrat.

Production Tensions Revealed

However, the working environment was frayed and fractious, according to the letters. In a letter to the writer, the director wrote: “How could you treat me this way?”

The screenwriter had already made his name with masterpieces like Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man reveals the director’s harsh edits to his work.

Extensive crossings-out include the aristocrat’s dialogue in the ending, 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.”

Apart from the Creative Duo

Conflict escalated outside the writer and director. A producer commented: “Shaffer’s talent was marred by excessive indulgence that drove him to show he was too clever by half.”

In a letter to the production team, the director complained about the film’s editor, the editing specialist: “I believe he appreciates the theme or style of the film … and thinks that he is tired of it.”

In a correspondence, Lee described the film as “alluring and enigmatic”, despite “dealing with a talkative producer, an underpaid and harassed writer and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Lost Documents Uncovered

An extensive correspondence about the production was among six sack-loads of documents left in the loft of the old house of Hardy’s third wife, Caroline. Included were unpublished drafts, storyboards, production photos and budget records, which reflect the struggles faced by the team.

The director’s children his two sons, currently in their sixties, used the material for an upcoming publication, called Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the extreme pressures on the director during the making of the movie – including a health crisis to bankruptcy.

Family Fallout

Initially, the movie was a box office flop and, in the aftermath of its failure, Hardy left his wife and his family for a new life in the US. Legal letters show Caroline as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that Hardy was indebted to her as much as £1m in today’s money. She had to sell their house and died in 1984, aged 51, battling alcoholism, never knowing that her film later turned into an international success.

Justin, an acclaimed documentary maker, described The Wicker Man as “the movie that messed up my family”.

When someone reached out by a resident who had moved into his mother’s old house, inquiring if he wanted to retrieve the sacks of papers, his initial reaction was to suggest burning “all of it”.

But afterward he and his brother examined the sacks and understood the importance of what they held.

Revelations from the Documents

His brother, an art historian, commented: “All the big players are in there. We found the first draft by the writer, but with his father’s notes as director, ‘controlling’ Shaffer’s overexuberance. Because he was formerly a barrister, Shaffer did a lot of overexplaining and dad just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They respected each other and clashed frequently.”

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

Financial Struggles

His family did not profit monetarily from the film, he explained: “This movie has gone on to make so much money for others. It’s unfair. His father agreed to take five grand. So he never received any of the upside. Christopher Lee never received any money from it either, despite the fact he performed his role for no pay, to get out of Hammer [Horror films]. Therefore, it was a very unkind film.”