How did you get to know Johnny Ramone?
We both had an interest in posters. I met him though that way. He liked monster posters and I did as well. He came over to my house one day at a party and we got talking. He had a big collection. He had all that stuff. I didn't. I had one or two. So we got talking about that and then I found out how passionate he was about movies, and then we became friends on that basis.

What made you think the original film was ripe for remaking?
I thought a lot about the movie, and whether there would be any way to recreate another contemporary version of the story that might reintroduce the title to people, people who don't even really know about the original. Most people here in the States don't even know anything about The Wicker Man. So I thought it was an interesting way to bring something that was excellent back to people's attention. And the new version is a different track altogether. There's no way you really want to do something completely the same - you can't. There's no point in that.

How did director Neil LaBute get involved?
He came into the office and talked about it, and came up with a great idea. He made it a matriarchal society and he found different ways of introducing the themes of the original into a more contemporary concept, and how it could happen today. I like Neil's directing a lot. I like Nurse Betty. I thought Greg Kinnear was excellent in that. I like In The Company of Men. He's got an extraordinary touch for showing people who are suffering.

So you suffer in the film then?
Oh, yeah! There's no question. I'm on the receiving end! But I have to say that the MPAA cut a lot out. That was a problem. I was forced to deliver a PG-13 in order to get the movie made, and the stuff that I came up with that was really wonderful Edgar Allen Poe and grotesque, the MPAA cut. You will be able to see that on the Director's Cut DVD.

Can you explain more about the Poe influence on the film?
I wanted to bring in a Edgar Allen Poe feeling to the film. I remember when I first met with Neil on the set, I brought The Raven with me, and a book of Poe stories. I wanted to create that feeling of Gothic horror, if there was any way we could do that. The movie is not gratuitously violent. You're not going to have pop-ups or cheap shots. It's more about ambience and the eerie quality of the place and the people.

Is The Wicker Man, in your mind, very different from Neil's other films?
It is quite a bit different. It's dealing with a society of women who have been persecuted - most recently with the Salem Witch trials. So they have found sanctuary in an island that they have to themselves, and their Celtic ancestors are still informing them, in terms of their beliefs. Now I don't believe that people...nobody that I know would say that people today are doing these kinds of things. There's a whole culture out there that has Pagan ideals but they don't kill animals and things like that. Those things have progressed with the times - but maybe there are sacrificial aspects in existence. Who knows?

How aware were you of the cult fan worship of the original movie?
That I didn't know. I'm sure that whenever you tackle something like this - and I wasn't aware of that - I'm going to be under attack. But that's OK! Whatever inspires people. This is a very different movie. I'm not going to say we've made a better film or the same film. We haven't. We've just made a different film. Ellen Burstyn is excellent. She reprises the Christopher Lee role, and Christopher Lee was amazing in the original. In a way, I would say this was a tip of the hat, an homage, a thank-you for inspiring us, we liked it so much, let's see what else we can do with the concept.