Shock Till You Drop announces the pub used in Robin Hardy's 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man is up for sale. Also known as the Ellengowan Hotel, this grand old building was the site known as the "Green Man Inn" where Sergeant Howie heard Willow MacGregor singing and dancing (naked) on the other side of his bedroom wall...
The pub is listed for sale for two hundred thousand pounds, or about $316,000, which seems a bargain these days, and considering the potential for marketing the place as a tourist attraction for film buffs. Many of the film's locations are spread out over a somewhat large area, so a "Wicker Man Package" would include some driving around, but that'd be part of the fun! Summerisle may be a fiction, but the locations used to bring it to life are most assuredly real.
How wonderful it would be if this hotel could stay in business and continue to honor the legacy of this film. Anyone want to pool their funds?
And speaking of The Wicker Man's legacy, has anyone managed to see The Wicker Tree yet? I was heading to New York City last week for just that purpose only to find out that the film, which was only showing at one theatre, had closed after only one week. So far the film is only showing in very limited release in a handful of locations. I invite anyone lucky enough to live in one of these cities to hurry up and see it before it closes, and to write a review for this blog!
Alas, the film is already slated for a DVD-Blu-Ray release on April 24th, 2012. What a shame so many of us will not be able to view it on the big screen before then. Please support your local movie theatres playing this film! I am disappointed that a film so many of waited so long to see, and cheered on all through its difficult history of funding and production, is not going to be visible in theatres for a wider audience. Such is the movie industry, folks; that is why going to opening weekend, despite the crowds, can be the best way to support a film you want to see perform well. Theatres make decisions on whether to continue showing a film based on initial box office interest, and if it's not there opening weekend, they have to cut their losses and move on. This can really harm small-budget films (The Wicker Tree cost $7.75 million) that can't afford to make numerous prints to show nationwide.
So get out there, you people in Portland and Los Angeles and Cincinnati and El Paso! And shell out some money to view this movie! Then let us all know what you think...
