The Wicker Man TRAILER

I just watched the original for the first time last night. I liked it a lot, and Christopher Lee was fantastic, but it definitely could do with an update. However, it seems to me that moving the location outside of the British Isles will cause the remake to lose something in the translation. I hope I'm wrong.

I'm not saying that the film will be bad, but the trailer confirms my fear that at least the marketing folks can't sell it as "scary" without resorting to creepy editing and foreboding music. This is missing the point of the original, which it is otherwise looking quite likely to retell shot-for-shot (plus a bit of backstory for Cage and some extra spooky bee-stuff). There's no music in the original that, outside of the film's context, should be considered "scary", and I wonder if the importance of one's religious faith (particualrly Cage's character) will remain intact. Without that crucial element it will fail where the original exceeded, though I don't imagine I'll end up pleased with how it turns out anyway. Horror movies can turn into pretty decent remakes (or exemplary ones such as in the cases of The Fly and The Thing), especially so when stripped to the basic elements, but the new stuff this one seems to be bringing to the table does not inspire confidence.

Then again, it's just a trailer.

The Angelina Jolie + Claire Forlani thing was hot.

I think that judging the style of the movie by the style of the trailer is jumping the gun. It's a trailer for a horror film, so naturally marketing is going to call for lots of eerie noise and jump cuts. It's what they do.

I think The Wicker Man is a movie that could certainly work with an update, and I don't think that moving it out of the British Isles will hurt it too badly so long as it's extremely rural. But the opening exploding car bit makes me unhappy, as I don't think we need our hero all that angst'd up. I hope for the best.

Checked out the director's imdb page and he doesn't have a very good track record unfortunately. Pair that with a pretty damn pedestrian trailer and you've got a project I'm anticipating but worried for.

Neil LaBute doesn't have a good track record?

He's one of the best dramatists working today. His involvement, and the prospect of what he might do with the underlying theme, is the only thing that has me interested in this project as I consider the original one of the greatest movies (horror or otherwise) ever made.

Yeah Neil Labute is not some Music Video hack bought in for his slick visuals. It's his attachment to this project that piques my interest to be honest, otherwise i probably wouldn't bother either.

I've only seen Nurse Betty. I've been meaning to catch up on him. I should get around to that.

I've never seen any of Labute's previous work. Anything especially worth watching to get hyped up for this film?

Your Friends and Neighbours and In The Company Of Men.

Just added In The Company Of Men to the queue. Stupid Netflix didn't have Your Friends And Neighbors. I'll be sure to try and watch the both of them sometime before september.

I hope it isn’t going to turn into an F/X bonanza. I just don’t think the story is suited to that kind of treatment.

Please, PLEASE, tell me the ending hasn't been 'Hollywoodized'!!!

'Alcon Entertainment and Millennium Films present a Saturn Films production and an Emmett/Furla Films production for Equity Pictures Medienfolds GmbH & Co. KG111 and Nu Image Entertainment GmbH … '

That's some list of stakeholders.

Okay, after reading the thread I've gone back and re-looked at his IMDB page after my original cursory glance. What I saw was a couple titles that rang a bell but of which I couldn't remember a thing (In The Company Of Men & Your Friends And Neighbors), Nurse Betty which I assumed to be yet another simply-shot black comedy with a pair of post-Pulp Fiction hitmen, and Posession which I remembered having one of the most eye-rolling thriller/romance trailers ever back when I saw it in theatres. Actually going through and looking at the movies it seems they've all been given good general ratings, and the fact that he seems to divide audiences with some controversial story choices heartens me. Before I can make any claims about him not being able to jump to genre films I'd better actually watch some of his fucking movies, and stop making stupid assumptions.

I still hope this turns out ok, I guess I'm still bent up that Del Toro or Fincher aren't making this.

I don't think they'd get away with changing the ending - it's the whole point of the story. And, given LaBute's previous misanthropic form, it's not a move I can see him endorsing.

What concerns me about the trailer is the suggestion that Cage's copper is a) driven by remorse for not saving the girl in the car and b) that Rowan might be his daughter.

Either of those paths - the second one especially - would be fatal mistakes. Sergeant Howie is ensnared in the first movie because of his faith and the arrogant hubris that stems from it. This is not a story that requires the "this time it's personal" approach. Quite the opposite.

And while I understand the marketing strategy in pitching it as a horror, I do feel that misses the point. The Wicker Man is a rural mystery. It only becomes a horror movie in the final minutes, when you realise what's at the heart of the mystery.

And I'm still not convinced that transferring it to the US is a wise move. The original movie works because there's genuine folklore and rural British tradition woven into the structure and fabric of Shaffer's story. There's an incredible amount of verisimiltude in the tale. As someone whose parents were very much into that sort of traditional heritage (though not insane pagans, I should add) it's a very convincing movie. The mummers plays, the sword dancing - it's all real, and not just some fictional hoodoo thrown together to make it all spooky and shit.

Basically I think Robin Hardy got the movie exactly right first time - Christopher Lee still maintains it's the finest movie he ever made - and so it will always seem like a poor choice for a remake, even with an intriguing director at the helm.

Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t Woodward’s character a virgin in the original? It’ll be interesting to see if this remains the case in the new version.

Yeah, his untouched penis forms an integral part of the plot - and is what makes Britt Ekland's nude cavorting more than just cheap titillation.

I agree.

Why did they have to show the goddamn wicker man already? I am also concerned at the angsty "I failed a child before" and "Daddy" approach.

Even though re-makes of good movies often fall flat, my fingers are crossed on this one.

If the script is up to standard you know Ellen Burstyn will deliver a strong and scary performance. I've never been Cage's biggest fan but I think he could thrive in this. There's a certain wide-eyed innocence to the guy that suits the role - or, at least, Woodward's original role - perfectly, IMO.

As mentioned, the worry for me is if they turn it into a special effects movie. The ambiguity of the original (do the townsfolk really have a connection to dark forces of nature, or is it all fabrication?) was one of its strengths. Cage being assailed by a host of CGI whatnots will evaporate all the mystery and then some.

I'm also waiting to see how the central theme of the film is handled. In its original form, this is a story in which the moral construct of Christianity is confronted, challenged and - SPOILER!!!! - gets its arse well and truly kicked by an older way of life.

Would a major studio bankroll a movie like that today?

I was thinking about this when I watched the trailer. If the like of J. K. Rowling has the fundamentalists out burning books, you have to wonder what reaction a faithful remake of WM would produce. The hints are all there in the trailer (the statue of Jesus underwater, for instance), but it remains to be seen how far it'll go.

I think it could do well. It strikes me that movies such as these are suited to scaring those with some kind of religious indoctrination. America is a deeply religious country.

It's funny. I was talking to a few friends about The Omen the other day. It was noticeable that all those who were brought up atheists had a far lower opinion of the film. I was a good Catholic boy when I first saw it and it scared the shit out of me. Spent a good day-or-so looking for birthmarks.

I have a friend who's a a pretty stringent catholic who loves the original Wicker Man. Partially because the ending in his eyes represents a form of martydom. Don't know why I bring that up now. I love the original and am really hoping that this does it justice.

Yeah, I vaguely recall someone (Woodward?) commenting in the director's cut that many Catholics love the movie because Woodward's character sticks to his principles to the end.

Hardy is doing a talk, along with a screening, about the Wicker Man in a few weeks. I wonder what he'll have to say about this latest version, he, Woodward and Lee have always seemed very obliging in talking about their film, but on a roundtable interview a few months ago (on BBC 4) they were pretty sneery about the idea of an american update.

They feared the film would end with Cage escaping the pagans and blasting his way off the island with a machine gun.

You're killing me Chris, you're killing me.

I'd love to see what happens to Cage at the end of the film. Perhaps it can segue from the end of this film to the beginning of Ghost Rider.

To be fair, by the time he realises what's going on, he doesn't have much say in the matter. I always found his cry of "Oh God, no!" at the end to be quite damning. He doesn't seem like a willing martyr.

It is one of those cases where you can either look at it as acceptance of his fate, or a desperate bid for mercy.

No, but I suspect many see commonality with Jesus on the cross.

‘Father, why have you forsaken me?’ - and all that.

It doesn't matter what his attitude is towards getting burnt alive. For all his faith or for all his reason - he's just the same as that chicken next to him.

Needs more salt.

I'm going to guess that maybe LaBute has changed the story a smidge so that the Pagans are representing modern day fundamentalist Christians and the Cage character is representing critical thought. The original story is allegorical anyways so a remake should change what the allegory is, correct?

It'd be nice if the remake went along with the original script idea of making it a game, albeit a deadly one, which Howie could leave at any time he wanted. This is pretty much presented in the movie apart from the scene where Howie discovers his plane has been sabotaged.

It always struck me as odd to change it from a devious honey trap into him being unable to leave and forced to take the bait.

Interesting. As a Catholic, I can say that Woodward's "martyrdom" or "sticking to his principles" really didn't play a factor in my enjoyment of the movie. Rather, I dug the movie because it is excellently done. While the story is very much about a clash of faiths, it wasn't necessary to choose a side. To the contrary, I found myself disliking Woodward for obstinately pushing his belief system on the villagers (although I also pitied him because I knew what was to come).

As for the remake not working because it's set in America, I disagree. For a pretty decent example of why (or how) it works, I recommend checking out Thomas Tryon's "Harvest Home" which explore paganism in rural New England. I haven't read it in years, but it has a blueprint very similar to The Wicker Man. If I recall correctly, in fact, the citizens of Cornwall Coombe (from "Harvest Home") were the descendents of English settlers who had resurrected the old ways after their crops began to fail. It's decent and worth a read.

I've just realised, the words on the blackboard are from Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Full text here.

Does this mean they're Satanists?

It could be part of the game. The inhabitants are trying to create a siege mentality for Howie, fucking with him at every turn so they can control his actions. It could be there as another way to mess with him and his beliefs.

Possibly. But it's worth remembering that Blake was at the heart of the Romantic movement that re-interpreted Milton's Paradise Lost.

For Blake, Milton’s poem was an imaginative entry into the world of difference. He argued that God comes out of the work as dull and uninspiring, whereas Satan is vigorous, powerfully conceived and curiously attractive of character.

Isn't the point of the sacrifice that they need to ensure that the harvest will be successful? It's not a game - the islanders can't afford to let Howie leave.

But that's how Anthony Schaffer set out the book. He devised it as a game, and that has always stuck with me. They are playing for real, but a lot of the things that happen to Howie seem to be staged to keep him on the right path.

Geoff: If we take what you say into account then we have to go back to the question of why is it there. Confusing paganism and satanism is not the sort of thing that would have happened on this movie. Christopher Lee and Schaffer were both interested in Paganism and the golden bough was used as a reference guide.

The islanders toy with him and manipulate him, but there's no way they can let him leave. They need the harvest. He's herded just as surely as the livestock. That's why they sabotage his plane.

It's just a guess. Blake - rightly or wrongly - is often associated with Satanism. I can't think of any obvious pagan connections, but I'm not an expert on the subject.

Do we know for sure that the islanders in the new version are pagans?

If they're not, it somewhat undermines the subtext of the story - the Summerisle residents are following a genuine British pagan religion that predates Christianity. It's a collision between old morality and new morality.

America just doesn't have that historical weight.

Yeah. I'll be a bit disappointed if they turn out to be common-or-garden Satanists (The Devil Rides Out kinda stuff). Not that you couldn't make a decent film out of it. I just think they'd have to re-work the original script to the point where it's unrecognizable.

TBH, I don’t know the extent of paganism in the US. If it’s negligible perhaps the producers think a good ol’ God vs. The Devil clash is more marketable.

But like I said, it's just a guess.

Looking at the trailer again, it's interesting that Cage is shot upside down twice. Not conclusive proof, but ...

Interesting that the new movie seems to actually make the villagers supernatural and creepy. Kinda reminds me of the mob from the end of Silent Hill, which ain't a good thing.

The film actually looks quite good, and if I can view it as it's own production and nothing to do with the original it looks enjoyable. It just seems an odd choice to make the villagers so menancing when part of the horror of the originals end was that everyone was so damn nice and friendly, even when burning a man to death.

I suppose there ought to have been a spoiler warning on this thread, since we've given up the ending of the original film repeatedly. It sounds like most of us have seen it, at any rate.

If you're posting on the Creature Corner boards and you've never seen The Wicker Man, you deserve to be spoiled. With a big stick.

If you set aside Native American religion, yeah, the history of paganism in America is nil.