It is time to keep your appointment with The Wicker Man: in an exclusive today, Deadline have revealed that Robin Hardy’s folk horror classic is being adapted for a television series.
The new project comes from Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish’s production studio The Imaginarium (The Ritual, No One Gets Out Alive) and Studiocanal-backed Urban Myth Films (War of the Worlds). BAFTA-award winning writer Howard Overman (Misfits, War of the Worlds) will pen the script for the show, which is currently being pitched to potential broadcasters.
1973’s original The Wicker Man follows Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), a devoutly Christian police sergeant tasked with investigating the disappearance of a young girl from a remote Scottish island. While there, he finds himself disturbed by the Pagan islanders and their communal rituals led by the enigmatic Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), culminating in one of the most unsettling endings in all of horror history.
According to Deadline, Overman has said the television adaptation will differ from Hardy’s original but will “explore the same themes of sacrifice, superstition and ritual that were at its core”, while Cavendish stated Overman has “created a bold, shocking and unique series, pulling the themes and terrifying power of the original Wicker Man into a thrilling modern setting.”
As part of the ‘Unholy Trinity’ (alongside Michael Reeves’ 1968 Witchfinder General and Piers Haggard’s 1971 The Blood on Satan’s Claw), Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man is widely considered to be one of the forbearers of folk horror as we know it today. The Wicker Man’s influence has long been prevalent throughout horror, particularly in folk horror’s more recent resurgence with films like Ari Aster’s Midsommar and Gareth Evans’ Apostle. The film was also heavily featured in Kier-La Janisse’s Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, the first deep-dive documentary into the genre that hit Shudder earlier this year.
Adapting The Wicker Man has proved challenging before: a remake of The Wicker Man starring Nicholas Cage was released in 2006 to generally unfavourable reviews but has since become solidified in meme history thanks to the infamous bees scene.
Plot details, casting and release date for The Wicker Man show are still under wraps, so you’ve got plenty of time to practice your rendition of The Landlord’s Daughter.
