Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård are two actors I enjoy immensely, so I am delighted that they’re co-starring in a twisted romantic comedy/fantasy film, Wicker. It premiered at Sundance earlier this year and is due in theaters in October, a sort of spooky season rom-com about love and sex and jealousy. Wicker is from filmmaking duo Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, who also co-wrote the script, adapting from Ursula Wills-Jones short story, “The Wicker Husband”.

Colman stars as “the Fisherwoman”, a homely woman in a medieval-ish village who is mocked for her single status. She asks the basket weaver, played by Peter Dinklage, for a husband, and he crafts her a magical man from wicker, played by Skarsgård. We cannot call him “the wicker man” because the Wicker Man is famously aflame:

But Skarsgård is A wicker man, the OTHER wicker man, if you will. And he’s horny and apparently good at sex, and the film is billed as “raunchy”, and the trailer teases a lot of wicker sex, and the Fisherwoman and her bed-breaking tree-man start to cause a stir in the village. Elizabeth Debicki (tall!) and Richard E. Grant also star, and the film looks funny and sexy and weird. It also kind of reminds me of the Dan Stevens’ German-language film, I’m Your Man, about a woman and a robot’s relationship. Thematically, perhaps, they’re not so similar, but they’re both fantastical romances about women and their unusual, non-human lovers, and the trailer immediately made me think of I’m Your Man.

I am all for strange romantic fables starring Alexander Skarsgård as a wicker man, non-fire edition, and Olivia Colman as a sharp-tongued woman finding satisfaction on her own, Pier 1 Imports-inspired terms. I am especially all for a cheeky release date that positions this charmingly bizarre film in the midst of horror movie season—and awards season. Oh please, let Wicker make an awards push. Something tells me the Oscar campaign would be hilarious.

Photo credits: Black Bear

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