Caffeinated Clint
Robin Hardy’s reimagining of “The Wicker Man”
That long-awaited “Wicker Man” re-imagining – same story, different backdrop – is finally (this thing has been a long time coming) about to get underway.
“Cowboys for Christ”, from writer/director Robin Hardy (the chap that brought us the original “Wicker Man” – not the mind numbing remake), has set itself a September 10 start date. Its booked locales in Scotland and Texas to shoot.
Starring Christopher Lee and Faye Dunaway, the film tells of a Christian singing star and her chaste fiance, a Texas cowboy, who travel to Scotland for a music festival that is merely the curtain-raiser for a horrific pagan ritual of sacrifice and murder, and it’s uncertain if the power of the Americans’ Christian faith will be strong enough to survive the assault of the pagans.
At the moment, they’re on the lookout for some faces to fill the names – namely the leads, Beth and Steve.
Beth Boothby: 20s. Beth is Texan and an all-American beauty. She sang gospel with her Cowboys for Christ church until her remarkable voice was discovered and then joined the Redeemer’s choir. Along with other young missionaries, she travels the USA and overseas, spreading the Word. She is decent and modest and a real Believer with only an occasional scintilla of doubt about God’s purpose for her. Beth hasn’t had much time for the opposite sex, except for Steve whom she met when she was fifteen and loves deeply. Their love is tested by what happens to them in this story but we never really doubt that it is constant. On a trip to Scotland to both perform at an arts festival and spread the word of Christ to the “heathens” of Glasgow, Beth is invited to visit a borderland estate and castle on a secluded island belonging to a Scottish Laird — but once there, she soon learns that her charming invitation to be crowned the “Queen Of The May” is part of a complex, horrific pagan rite, designed to test her Faith and ultimately destroy her. MUST BE AN ACCOMPLISHED SINGER WITH A 4 OCTAVE RANGE. Lead;
Steve Thompson: 20s-Early 30s. Steve is that rare thing these days, a real Texas cowboy. Like Beth, he a true Believer in the Bible. The “silver ring” compact (no sex before marriage) that he and Beth have joined, has never really irked him because he genuinely loves her although he is not dazzled by her career. He is also a decent man, modest about even his one extraordinary skill – the riding of horses. But while Beth has lived almost perpetually in the artificial world of pop music tours, with her as the star, he has lived in the real world: the stables, the cattle drives, the bars, mixing with folks like himself – relatively poor people in rich Texas. Because he is in touch with reality, he is more skeptical than she is when they fall into Sir Lachlan Morrison’s trap. Invited to compete in a riding match, Steve thinks nothing of it, until he learns that his life is on the line and that the pagans of the island intend to destroy him. MUST BE COMFORTABLE AROUND HORSES AND A GREAT RIDER. Lead.
“Cowboys for Christ” was originally titled “May Day”.
