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Trivia: The film was originally intended to be released direct-to-video, but it got such a positive response during its first screening at the Sundance Film Festival, Lionsgate decided to release it in theaters. It paid off, as "Saw" ended up spawning a franchise and becoming one of the most financially successful horror series of all time.

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Trivia: Throughout the film, there are several montages of still photos. This wasn't a style choice - the budget was so tight and the shoot was so fast, they didn't always have time to get all the shots they needed. So they used photographs taken by an on-set photographer to help pad out several scenes.

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Trivia: One day, co-star Cary Elwes looked over to talk with director James Wan, and noticed Wan was sitting on a small, wooden apple-box just a few inches off the ground. Elwes questioned Wan about where his director's chair was, and was shocked to learn that the budget was so tight, they evidently couldn't even afford chairs for the major crew members. Elwes evidently went to the producers and demanded that Wan, a first-time feature director, get a proper director's chair, and eventually one was purchased.

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Trivia: The man who is burned to death in a Jigsaw trap was actually the ex-husband of the casting agent for the film. She apparently leapt at the chance to cast him in the role when she found out his character would be horribly burned to death. (Kinda makes you wonder what their relationship was like..).

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Trivia: The inspiration for the villain Jigsaw being a cancer victim came from an event in co-writer Leigh Whannell's personal life. Whannell began to suffer near-constant migraines during the writing process, and ended up having to go to the hospital to have an MRI. He was petrified about getting the results back and began to ponder what would happen if he found out he had a brain tumor. He began to ask himself what he would do with the rest of his life if he found out he was dying. Thankfully, it turned out to be nothing, and the headaches eventually went away, but his fear and paranoia stuck with him and inspired the character Jigsaw. Whannell was also inspired by an article about a man who was mis-diagnosed with cancer and how it (briefly) changed his life.

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Trivia: James Marsters signed onto the film because his son was a big "Dragonball" anime fan, and because he was told the film would be the start of a massive franchise. When he signed on, it was reported that Stephen Chow would produce and possibly direct, and the movie would have a $120 million budget. After he signed on, another director was brought on board and the budget was slashed all the way down to $30 million.

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Trivia: Many people involved with the film have spoken out against it in the years that have passed since it came out. James Marsters referred to it as "disastrous," Emmy Rossum said it was the one film she made that people shouldn't watch, writer Ben Ramsey apologized for making it and admitted he only wrote the film for the paycheck, and director James Wong admitted he wasn't aware of the franchise or its global fame when he signed on to direct.

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Question: Is there any reason why this is M. Night Shyamalan's only film to not have a Blu-Ray release? Like rights issues or something of that matter? Seems very odd that of all movies, this is the only one not available in HD.

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Trivia: Universal originally estimated the budget of the film at $100 million, given the size of the movie and the amount of visual effects. Director Joss Whedon told the producers that he could make the movie for under $40 million - true to his word, the film's final budget was a relatively tiny (by action-movie standards) $39 million.

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Trivia: Every time Malcolm is riding a horse, no matter what planet he's on, it's always the same horse - a horse called "Fred."

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Trivia: In an odd bit of studio meddling that shows how much the network didn't understand the series, Joss Whedon was given the contradictory note that Mal should be a more upbeat, positive character... and that he should also shoot and kill more people.

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The Message - S1-E15

Trivia: The funeral music heard at the end of "The Message" was written by the show's composer right after the series got cancelled. The theme was actually inspired by his sadness that the show was ending.

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Trivia: One of Joss Whedon's inspirations for the series was the historical Civil War novel "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara. The book was also the basis for the 1993 movie "Gettysburg."

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Trivia: Originally, the writers toyed with resurrecting the character Doyle and having him turn evil and become a "big bad" in one of the later seasons (presumably season four or five), but the idea was dropped after Doyle's actor Glenn Quinn tragically passed away in 2002.

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Trivia: The song "Master of Puppets" was originally intended to be used for the opening credits of the first "Zombieland," but the song "For Whom the Bell Tolls" ended up being cheaper to license. Director Ruben Fleischer said that the first thing he did when "Zombieland: Double Tap" got the greenlight was license "Master of Puppets" for the opening credits.

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Trivia: "Rush Hour" is credited for being the inspiration behind the popular (and polarizing) website "Rotten Tomatoes" in 1998. Creator Senh Duong was a massive Jackie Chan fan and began to collect the reviews critics published about his films. And he wanted to create an online space where the reviews could be compiled, especially as Jackie Chan's first major Hollywood film - "Rush Hour" - was coming out. Eventually, Duong and his associates began to compile reviews for other films not starring Chan, and the idea snowballed from there.

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Trivia: Tom Savini, who did the effects for the original film, returned to do the effects for this movie. As Savini had "created Jason" by doing the effects for the first movie, he felt it was appropriate that he should also be the one to definitively "kill Jason," as this was originally intended to be the final film.

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Trivia: Much of the double-impalement death was cut by the MPAA for being too gory. But ironically, a still from the deleted material was included on the back of the original VHS tape.

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Trivia: Jason actor Ted White reportedly hated young Corey Feldman, and purposely frightened him during the filming of some stunts just to amuse himself.

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Trivia: Steve Dash, who did most of Jason's scenes, was injured several times during the filming. Among other things, his hand was cut and needed stitches, he was knocked out, and he broke his ribs during a stunt.

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