Cowboys for Summerisle?
Jun 13th, 2007 by milo
It had no humor, virtually no sex, and the music was all towards orchestral music, and no songs, no local stuff at all.
So spake Robin Hardy about the 2006 Nicolas Cage remake of his 1973 directoral debut, The Wicker Man.
Well, now that Robin Hardy has sat through last year’s biggest flop (unless you count Golden Raspberry nominations, in which case it was a roaring success), perhaps I don’t have to.
(thought I will confess the prospect of seeing Nicholas Cage stumbling round in a bear costume inordinately tempting….)
Anyway, my colleague Graeme has just bounded back from his local Hay on Wye literary festival brandishing a signed copy of Hardy’s 2006 novel, Cowboys for Christ, a semi-sequel to his 1973 film.
At the signing, Hardy said that Cowboys for Christ could enter production as early as this year, and that he would again take the director’s chair. If successful, Cowboys for Christ would form the second film in a planned trilogy, culminating in Twilight of the Gods, set - in all places - on Iceland.
(though that might cut down on the number of nude scenes…)
Hardy has been talking about a follow-up to The Wicker Man for years. As early as 2002, a follow up, The Riding of the Laddie was mooted to be about to enter production in Scotland and Oklahoma, with Ewan MacGregor, Sean Astin, Christopher Lee and Vanessa Redgrave all keen to star.
The plot to Riding of the Laddie sounded exactly the same as Cowboys for Christ - two evangelical US teens (both, conveniently, virgins) decide to spread the gospel in a remote Scottish island - with hilarious consequences.
Whatever title the film ends up with, the story sounds fantastic, though I suspect it would take balls of iron to finance it. Strong as the pagan gods are, there are Christian groups who might (not unreasonably) object to their followers being depicted as firewood.
I think any red-blooded Wicker Man fan would love to see a follow up, but I have my reservations.
Scriptwriter Anthony Shaffer is dead, as is composer Paul Giovanni, and whilst I am sure their spirits live on, it would be a crying shame if the follow up, like the remake, turned out to be just one more bad apple.