It's possible you missed that there had been a Wicker Man follow-up, given that Robin Hardy's 2011 The Wicker Tree failed to catch on in quite the way that his 1973 cult classic achieved. But that hasn't stopped the veteran director pressing onwards to complete his long-planned trilogy. Crowdfunding for The Wrath Of The Gods has just begun.
"The Wrath Of The Gods is set at a time when the gods are very angry indeed," explains Hardy of the film's plot. "An international entertainment company has decided to build a theme park based on the Norse Sagas: the tales of the genesis of the gods, their battles with the giants, and ultimately their creation of the human race. They felt this was an outrageous intrusion on their privacy!"
The human characters include fugitive widow Clarissa accused of murder, and police chief Oscar. The pair are "brought together in an unlikely relationship because of their mutual love for steampunk". We're also promised a supernatural element and an ending "as horrific in its way as the burning of the Wicker Man"...
The Indiegogo campaign hopes to raise an initial $210,000, which will be allocated to fund building the theme park set, some steampunk artefacts and a viking ship. Among the perks, $30 gets you a poster and a thanks in the credits, and for $5k you can be an extra.
The Wicker Tree, based on Hardy's novel Cowboys For Christ, was recognisably a reworking of The Wicker Man's themes with a slightly different angle (American Christian country singers instead of devout coppers, for example). This one sounds... very different.
Sadly Christopher Lee is no longer with us for a cameo appearance - as he was in The Wicker Tree - but casting is already underway, with the James Mapes, Christopher Leveaux and Icelandic model Halla Williams currently confirmed. Hardy hopes to start shooting in October.