8 Movie Remakes That Pissed Off The Original Creators

7. The Wicker Man

Nic Cage Wicker Man
Warner Bros.

The 2006 remake of The Wicker Man was one of the worst movies of that year, and it's really only remembered today because of how unintentionally hilarious Nicolas Cage's over-the-top acting is. "NOT THE BEEEEEEEEEES". Classic.

On the other hand, the 1973 original is better in every conceivable way. This was a case where the original movie is so good that the remake didn't really stand a chance, and sure enough, it flopped, was hated by all, and is now basically a meme.

But the negative reaction towards the movie didn't just come after it had released. In fact, a full year before it hit cinemas, filmmaker Robin Hardy - who directed the original - started firing shots at the team behind the remake, accusing them of being clueless.

In addition, the thought of the remake annoyed him so much that he even asked his lawyers for help in removing his name from the marketing materials, which had him listed as the screenwriter of the original.

Hardy then went on to direct The Wicker Tree in 2011, a spiritual sequel to his 1973 version of The Wicker Man. It was poorly received by critics, but Hardy, continuing the trash-talk, said that it was "a thousand times better" than the remake.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!