Did the recent remake of Robin Hardy's classic The Wicker Man leave you wanting to claw out your own eyes? Apparently Hardy himself was right there beside you, loathing every minute of what was done to his original work, and now he's back wit a little something to cleanse the palette. Hardy is currently working away on just the third film of his career - his second since making The Wicker Man in 1973 - and it mines familiar ground. Titled Cowboys for Christ it is a film adaptation of Hardy's novel of the same name. Here's the skinny:
Gospel singer Beth and her cowboy friend Steve, two virgins promised to each other, set off from Texas to enlighten the Scottish heathens in the ways of Christ. When they are welcomed with joy and elation to the village of Tressock, the border fiefdom of Sir Lachlan Morrison (Christopher Lee), they assume their hosts simply want to hear more about Jesus. Beguiled by beautiful, sexy Celtic music, in counterpoint to the bluegrass hymns Beth sings to them, she is elected Queen of the May. Meanwhile an increasingly doubtful Steve becomes her consort, destined to be hunted on horseback by the whole community in a ritual he believes to be an innocent race. Neither of them realize that these honors are being heaped upon them for a purpose that will lead them to a terrifying split end...
Keep an eye out for more on this one soon.
I wouldn't want to be in Hardy's shoes while working on this one. It'll be impossible to live up to the expectations of the fans of the original WICKER MAN.
"Well, because these daft and dewey-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes, impossible things are happening every day."
Still, especially with Christopher Lee being the boss of the place, this will look (and sound) dangerously like... well... a sequel to "The Wicker Man"?