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Robin Hardy - Interview <h1>sci fi interviews - robin hardy </h1> <p><img src="http://www.scifi.co.uk/images/interview_robinhardy.jpg" width="185" height="241" align="right" />"Let me just warn you I'm in a room at the moment with a bird." An intriguing start to our phone conversation with the man who directed cult classic <strong>The Wicker Man</strong>, and has reimagined the story with his new book <a href="http://www.cowboysforchrist.info">Cowboys For Christ</a>. Especially since he's a 67-year-old married chap with no less than eight children.</p> <p>"Not a female woman type bird, but a bird bird. If the chattering worries you, then I'll go into another room." Aha. From potentially saucy to terribly polite. Indeed, Hardy is an exceptionally well-spoken fellow. His novel, <strong>Cowboys For Christ</strong>, is - as mentioned above - rather similar to his iconic masterpiece <strong>The Wicker Man</strong>, a 1973 movie starring Edward Woodward. So why retell the story now? What's the inspiration?</p> <p>"At first, the inspiration really was that I go backwards and forwards to the United States a lot. I have a home there, as well here in the UK, and I've been very concerned about this sort of wild evangelical/political Christianity that there is there. Rather than doing a sequel, I was thinking about doing another version of the book, of the story in effect, and I suppose I've been galvanised into doing this by the fact that the DVD has been so successful in reviving interest in <strong>The Wicker Man</strong>. Secondly, the remake made me feel, well, if they're going to remake it, why don't I do another version of it? I suppose one's competitive spirit came into it there."</p> <p>We should point out here that Nicolas Cage is starring in a quite separate remake of <strong>The Wicker Man</strong>, due out this year. The trailer alone makes it look like a very different story indeed.</p> <p>"Well, it is. I'm amazed. I don't know how they call it <strong>The Wicker Man</strong>. I assume that it ends with something which is <strong>Wicker Man</strong>-ish, but otherwise everything that I've seen makes it seem utterly, utterly different."</p> <p>And don't get him started on Cage himself...</p> <p>"I'm not enormously keen on him as an actor. I'm always slightly surprised that he is such a successful film star, but he obviously is in spite of things like the mandolin film [Captain Corelli's Mandolin], which I didn't think was all that wonderful. It seems to me his range is narrower than the studio seems to think, although that thing he did about the screenwriters [Adaptation]... I thought that was rather good.</p> <p>"So anyway, I think the answer to your question is - the DVD made me feel it was worth doing something new in the same vein, and the political events of the US made me want to tell the story of these people who are so innocent and, in many ways, so ignorant, but who have the feeling that they can convert the world. It is, I think you will agree, one of the hot subjects at the moment."</p> <p>Unquestionably.</p> <p>"And so the chance to use that in this context... I mean, whereas in <strong>The Wicker Man</strong>, he was simply investigating a crime, in this case they're proselytising in a big way. And so it's quite different from that point of view."</p> <p>Perhaps we should explain the novel. Better late than never, right? There are two contrasting sides to the story. Firstly, you have the joyful, naive Christianity of the two young Texans who come to save the stray sheep of Scotland. Not literally, of course. Beth is a young woman with a stunning voice and hugely successful pop career who is thinking about changing her life, while her fiance Steve is a good 'ol country boy who loves horses and keeps his starlet girlfriend grounded. Secondy, you have the ancient beliefs of a small Scottish border town, ruled by a charismatic laird and his wife. Hardy was inspired by a strange ritual he saw in Kelso, a small town just north of the England/Scotland border.</p> <p>"This young man on a very beautiful horse came into the square and was presented with a banner by somebody who was obviously the Mayor. There were pipers piping as he rode out of town, and they gave him about, I don't know, five minutes while they all consumed their 'stirrup cup', and then they went after him. I thought, 'Well, I'm going to follow this, see what happens.' So I followed in my car, which was rather like following a balloonist across country, because, of course, the ride didn't go in any way logical to the roads."</p> <p>So you've got the 'laddie' riding like the devil to get away, and the whole town hunting him on horseback. When they caught up with him, they had a rather tasty picnic, and it turned out this event had been going on for literally hundreds of years. Hardy was immediately fascinated by the whole affair, dug into the origins, and constructed his own version for the novel. A version with a very different ending, which of course we don't want to spoil for you...</p> <p>"Putting that together with my feelings about American evangelism started to make the story come together, if you see what I mean. I used the territory of <strong>The Wicker Man</strong> because I thought that it would be intriguing for people who liked the book and the film. One always aims to find and please an audience. I've always thought of it as a film, as well. Well, obviously as a film director, I always think of anything I write as potentially filmable."</p> <p>Just so. As we read the book, it struck us as very visual, very cinematic, and clearly Christopher Lee himself sprang from the page in the guise of Lachlan the laird.</p> <p>"Oh, good, I'm glad you felt that because I agree."</p> <p>It's perhaps not a coincidence that Lee is a long-time friend of Hardy's ever since they worked together on <strong>The Wicker Man</strong>, and <strong>Cowboys For Christ</strong> is to be made into a film starring... Christopher Lee.</p> <p>"I'm also in the middle of trying to cast the girl, Beth. I feel that if we get a young women like Leanne Rimes or similar, anyone who opens the first chapter will have a very good idea of who she is, and I'm hoping to get some young woman who's had that sort of experience in her life. I've got a young singer who actually is pretty near to being the person and that goes for some of the other characters too, I mean, like Lolly who is a sort of..."</p> <p>Succubus?</p> <p>"Well... in a way. I actually think of her as Sally Bowles [Liza Minelli's character] in <strong>Cabaret</strong>. She's my sort of model for Lolly. But... one of those sweet ladies like that. At the moment, Lolly is going to be somebody called Susie Amy who is Chardonnay in <strong>Footballer's Wives</strong>... I mean, if she's available when we're shooting. If she's not, it will be someone else. I think she'd quite like to do it. It's a very good part, I think. And she can ride well. The same way as we have to have someone for Beth who can really sing, we have to have someone for Lolly who can really ride."</p> <p>And Steve too, presumably. After all, horses are one of the greatest loves of his life.</p> <p>"Well, Steve, yes. I mean... funnily enough the distributors don't seem to be so interested in Steve as a role, so I'm not being encouraged to get a star or a name... I mean, just getting the best actor who can do that, who can ride as well."</p> <p>That might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.</p> <p>"Yes, it might, absolutely. And there are a lot of acting schools and film schools in Texas actually. There's a rather famous one in Austin, Texas. I shall probably go there and see who they've got. It shouldn't be difficult to find. But the girl with the voice... She's got to have a real voice, not just a sort of a 'pop' voice."</p> <p>There's tremendous potential here, clearly, and it hasn't even started shooting yet!</p> <p>"Well, we start shooting when we've completed the casting and thereby the financing, because the two are closely interrelated, as you know. My guess is that we'll start shooting around the end of January because it's got to be shot in the winter, simulating the spring. It's almost impossible to do it in the summer once all the leaves are out, and so spring is a very important visual part of the film. I can fake it in the winter. I can't fake it in the summer. And the other thing is, of course, that the farmers are much happier for you to ride about on their fields and things in the winter than they are in the summer."</p> <p>Sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun on that set - perhaps we could even come along at some point. Chat to the cast and crew, maybe even sneak into one of the crowd scenes...</p> <p>"Well, we'll see..."</p> <p>We'll take that as a yes for now. Watch this space!</p> [download]