Robin Hardy’s Wicker Tree is a companion or reimagining of the original The Wicker Man from the 1970s. Graham McTavish, Brittania Nichol, Henry Garrett, Honeysuckle Weeks and Christopher Lee star.
The last plot synopsis I saw for the film was when it was called Cowboys for Christ.
Beth is a successful pop music singer and a devout Protestant Christian from Texas, USA. She and her boyfriend Steve both belong to a group known as the “cowboys for Christ”, who travel to “heathen areas” of the world to preach Christianity. They travel to Glasgow, Scotland, hoping to save some souls once there. However, they are shocked when they receive a very negative reception, Beth even being set upon by a large dog.
After performing a concert at a local cathedral, the duo are approached by Lord Lachlan and his wife Delia, aristocrats from the small village of Tressock in the Scottish lowlands. They invite Beth and Steve to come back with them to Tressock in order to preach.
Meanwhile, detective Orlando is sent to Tressock, posing as the local police officer, in order to secretly investigate reports of a pagan cult.
I am not sure how much of that is still in the film as looking at IMDB actors and character names seem to have changed.
STYD spotted this teaser trailer on the films official site.
They also asked Lee if he was playing Lord Summerisle again.
“Don’t really know who I play in honesty, I’m not named. Good god, I don’t play Summerisle – in the movie I look like I do here [in Burke and Hare playing old Joseph in rags]. He’d be at least 38 years older. I was 50 when I shot the movie, so I suppose I could have done without it being too much of a stretch. I don’t know what happens in the film in truth, it’s a bit of a mystery to me. Apparently it’s in the style of the first whatever that means and it explores similar themes. However I wish them all the luck in the world of course because they have a superb cast and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be good with all the talent they have attached. It didn’t matter if my role was going to be large or small in The Wicker Tree. Audiences expected me to be in it anyway, and I am, so why do longer than a day’s work when that perception is out there already?”
