Robin Hardy has been talking about Cowboys For Christ, a "spiritual sequel" to his 1973 pagan horror musical classic The Wicker Man, for years. He published the story as a novel in 2007, but hasn't directed a film since that mind-boggling 70s original. Until now.
Funding fell through last year, but Shock Till You Drop are reporting that some shooting has now taken place in Texas, and is currently underway in Scotland. Christopher Lee is apparently on hand, along with Ed Speleers (Eragon) and Susie Amy (Lesbian Vampire Killers). Joan Collins was originally involved, but it's unclear whether or not she's still aboard.
Plot-wise, we're very much back in Wicker Man territory, as two Texan Christians attempt to introduce God to a remote Scottish border town.
"There is a tradition among 10 or 15 little towns on the borders in Scotland," Hardy told The Guardian in 2007, "where once a year, usually around the summer solstice, they elect a young man - the brightest and the best-looking, and the cleverest, I suppose - and he appears in the centre of the town on his horse, with outriders, and he's had a lovely party the evening before with all the prettiest girls, and he then rides out of town, and everyone who has a horse or a pony or a carthorse rides after him."
What happens next? "Well, that's the point. What they do is they have a lovely picnic. Not so in my book..."
Cowboys for Christ is part two of a mooted trilogy, with the third part, Twilight of the Gods, as-yet unwritten, but set to be based on the Icelandic sagas. At Hardy's current work-rate, it should be out by 2044, by which time he'll be 105.