Woodward turns down role in remake
Actor Edward Woodward turned down a role in the Hollywood remake of his hit film The Wicker Man because he would no longer be the star.
The 1973 cult horror classic is returning to the big screen with Nicolas Cage in the lead role.
Woodward, now 76, originally played the police sergeant investigating the mysterious goings-on of a remote Scottish island.
He has given his blessing to the remake but refused to be in it.
“I was asked to be in it but I didn’t really want to go back,” he said in an interview on Terry Wogan’s UKTV Gold chat show Wogan Now And Then.
“I’ve been there. There’s a slight difference when you are starring in something.
“When you get to my age, which is 76, you have already starred in things and then gradually the parts get smaller and smaller and smaller and you don’t star in things any more.
“They say: ‘Get over there.’ You say: ‘Okay.' You tug your forelock and go.”
Woodward enjoyed huge fame with 1980s TV show The Equaliser and previously played a secret agent in British series Callan.
He underwent triple bypass surgery in 1996 after two heart attacks and has worked sporadically since.
His last appearance was in an episode of ITV drama Where The Heart Is last year.
“I’m not retired. I’m open to offers,” he said.
The original film of The Wicker Man, which also starred Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland, is regularly voted one of the best horror movies of all time.
The updated version will be set in the US and directed by Neil LaBute.
In a change from the original, the pagan cult has been replaced by a society of women who cut out their men’s tongues. It is set for release in September.
Wogan Now And Then is on UKTV Gold on June 11.
