The Wicker Man: The Final Cut Gets a US Theatrical Release

*Updated* We have great news for fans of Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man. It was recently announced that an extended cut of the 1973 horror cult classic would be released to theaters and on Blu-ray/DVD in the UK. A limited theatrical run in the US has been announced and we have a list of dates and cities.

Due to the fact that the movie originally screened as part of a double bill, the version that appeared in theaters was shorter than Hardy’s actual cut. While the extended footage has been seen in the past, the original negatives were lost. Here’s what Robin Hardy had to say about the discovery:

via Screen Daily: “StudioCanal contacted me last year in their search for the original materials that have been missing…. I’m very pleased to announce that StudioCanal have been able to find an actual print of The Wicker Man, which is based on my original cut working with Abraxas, the American distributors, all those years ago… They plan, and this is the exciting bit, to actually release it. This version has never been restored before, has never been shown in UK theatres before, has never been converted to Blu-ray before.”

The Wicker Man: The Final Cut will be released in UK theaters on September 27  with a UK Blu-ray and DVD release planned for October 14th. The Wicker Man Blu-ray will be a three disc set, according to Blu-ray.com, with the first disc including ”The Final Cut” (HD), the UK theatrical Cut (HD) & the Director’s Cut (HD but with seamless branching to extra scenes in SD only) & audio commentary for Director’s Cut. The second disc is said to include supplemental features, but they have not yet been detailed. Disc 3 will contain the movie soundtrack.

Thanks to Fangoria for the heads up! Rialto Pictures is handling the US release and announced the following dates:

• September 27 – October 3 NEW YORK, NY IFC Center
• October 25 – 31 CHICAGO, IL Music Box Theatre
• October 28 – 31 PITTSBURGH, PA Pittsburgh Filmmakers at Regent Square
• October 31 HUNTINGTON, NY Cinema Arts Centre
• November 1 – 7 LOS ANGELES, CA Landmark Theatres - Nuart
• November 8 – 14 PHILADELPHIA, PA Landmark Theatres - Ritz at the Bourse
• November 22 – 24 SILVER SPRING, MD AFI Silver Theatre

*Updated with official press release:

"(August 26th, 2013)---New York-based distributor Rialto Pictures has announced the U.S. release of THE WICKER MAN – FINAL CUT, the definitive version of Robin Hardy’s thriller of pagan worshippers on a remote Scottish island. Seen for decades only in mutilated copies, the new Studiocanal restoration is the culmination of a long search (conducted via Facebook) for the complete director's cut. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the cult classic.

Rialto will roll out the restored version beginning September 27 at IFC Center , New York City, with runs in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and other cities throughout the fall.

After receiving an anonymous letter about a missing 12-year-old girl, devoutly Christian cop Edward Woodward travels by seaplane to a remote Scottish island to investigate. But the islanders welcome neither his badge nor religious devotion, for laird of the isle Christopher Lee and his devoted followers worship only the pagan gods of old - and those gods demand a sacrifice. Woodward fears for the missing girl's life and follows every possible lead to find her - despite the islanders' interference - before she becomes a human sacrificial lamb.

Starring Edward Woodward (Breaker Morant, TV 's The Equalizer), horror film legend Christopher Lee, stalwart Hammer vampiress Ingrid Pitt, and Swedish blonde bombshell/Bond Girl Britt Ekland (Man With The Golden Gun, After The Fox, Get Carter), WICKER MAN is a quintessential 70s thriller, with the search for its integral version one of cinema history's great detective hunts.

Butchered by its doomed UK distributor to fit on double bills, with its original camera negative apparently lost, THE WICKER MAN has gathered a devoted fan base over the past four decades, with the complete version their Holy Grail. Some missing scenes were recovered from an obsolete one-inch broadcast tape, but over the years there were rumors of complete 35mm prints floating around.

Earlier this year, the search intensified when worldwide rights holder Studiocanal initiated a Facebook campaign to recover the missing 35mm material, resulting in the discovery of a 92-minute 35 mm release print at the Harvard Film Archive. This print was scanned and sent to London, where it was recently inspected by director Robin Hardy, who confirmed that it was the same cut he had put together for its American distributor in 1979. This culminated in a digital restoration of the complete U.S. theatrical version, which director Hardy recently anointed as "the final cut."

Hardy, now 83, has said of this restored version, “It fulfills my vision.”

Described by the Los Angeles Times as “the gold standard of reissue distributors," Rialto’s catalogue includes classics by Godard, Fellini, Renoir, Kurosawa, Buñuel, Costa-Gavras, Pontecorvo, Bresson, Ophuls, Becker, Carol Reed, Michael Powell, Jules Dassin, Jean-Pierre Melville, and many others.

The Wicker Man – Final Cut is part of Studiocanal’s vast library of over 2,000 titles, now distributed for U.S. theatrical release by Rialto. Since its founding, Rialto’s close partnership with Studiocanal has included major reissues of such jewels of the French company’s classic library as Renoir’s Grand Illusion, Reed’s The Third Man, and Melville’s Army of Shadows, and Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria."