New York-based distributor Rialto Pictures has announced the U.S. release later this fall of The Wicker Man: Final Cut, the definitive version of Robin Hardy’s bizarre 1973 thriller of pagan worshippers on a remote Scottish island. Seen for decades only in mutilated copies, the new Studiocanal restoration is the culmination of a long search, conducted via Facebook, for the complete director’s cut of the cult classic, which marks its 40th anniversary this year. Rialto will roll out the restored version beginning September 27 at the IFC Center in New York City, with runs in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and other cities throughout the fall.
Starring Edward Woodward, Ingrid Pitt, Britt Ekland and horror film legend Christopher Lee, The Wicker Man is a deliciously strange and provocative film, and the search for its essential version represents one of recent cinema history’s great detective hunts. Butchered during its initial run by its doomed U.K. distributor in order to fit on double bills, its original camera negative was apparently lost. Some missing scenes were recovered from an obsolete one-inch broadcast tape, but over the years there were only rumors of a small handful of complete 35mm prints floating around.
Earlier this year, the search intensified when worldwide rights holder Studiocanal initiated a Facebook campaign to recover the missing 35mm material, resulting in the discovery of a 92-minute 35mm release print at the Harvard Film Archive. This print was scanned and sent to London, where it was inspected by director Hardy, who confirmed that it was the same edit he had put together for his movie’s American distributor in 1979. This culminated in a digital restoration of the complete U.S. theatrical version, which director Hardy recently anointed as The Wicker Man‘s final, authoritative cut. Says Hardy, now 83, of this restored version: “It fulfills my vision.” No word on Hardy’s thought’s regarding YouTube edits of Neil LaBute and Nicolas Cage’s 2007 remake, though.
