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Trivia: The movie was partially the result of a country-music and pop-culture legend. Sandollar Productions, a studio that helped finance the film, was co-founded by Dolly Parton of all people. Sandollar also went on to be involved with the TV series and its spin-off "Angel." (Though Parton herself was not credited).

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Trivia: Coincidentally, another film with a similar story was made around the same time - "Chasing Liberty." That film came out first and flopped at the box office. Its failure caused the producers of this film to push back its release date, as they wanted to distance the film from "Chasing Liberty" as much as possible. Unfortunately the tactic failed, and this film did even worse at the box office.

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Trivia: The final film of famed composer Michael Kamen, who passed while working on the score. Blake Neely was brought in to finish Kamen's work.

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Trivia: Writer James Gunn originally wrote the film to be a darker, edgier comedy geared more towards adults who grew up with the original cartoon than geared towards children. (His intention was for the film to be rated PG-13.) However, it was edited down to a family-friendly PG rating after parents complained during test-screenings, and because the studio felt the film should ultimately be aimed at children. Among the content cut for the PG rating was a kiss between Velma and Daphne, some crude jokes, and footage with (very) visible cleavage, which had to be covered up with CG.

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Trivia: The film was originally going to be directed by Harold Ramis, but he stepped down due to creative differences with the casting.

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Trivia: Tim Allen wasn't the original choice for Jason Nesmith. The producers and original director wanted Kevin Kline to star in the film as Jason, but he turned it down. Reportedly, Alec Baldwin loved the script and campaigned aggressively for the role and was also considered, but ultimately wasn't chosen.

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Trivia: As part of a promotional gimmick, Lionsgate auctioned off posters for the film for charity. What makes the posters special is that star Tobin Bell donated a vial of his own blood to be mixed in with the red ink used for the posters.

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Trivia: A specialist had to be brought in to verify that the maggots used in the "pig vat" trap were technically edible, as there was the very real chance one of the maggots could fall into someone's mouth during filming.

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Trivia: Leigh Whannell stated that Donnie Wahlberg liked the script, but also gave him some notes during their first meeting - and his notes on the script were about the same length as the script itself.

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Trivia: Co-star Bahar Soomekh reportedly really doesn't like horror movies because they terrify her, and she had nightmares almost every night while making the movie.

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Trivia: Shawnee Smith was pregnant during filming, and tried to keep it a secret from the crew. Director Darren Lynn Bousman only found out because Smith's daughter once blurted out "There's a baby in mommy's belly!" one day while meeting with Smith to discuss the film.

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Trivia: "Scary Movie 4" had an extended sequence parodying the first "Saw" movie and even featured a replica of the infamous bathroom from the first two movies. It has been widely reported (but never officially confirmed) that the producers of "Saw III" actually bought the bathroom set off the producers of "Scary Movie 4" to use in this film, as it was cheaper to re-purpose and re-configure the set than to build a brand-new one for this movie.

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Trivia: The film's original poster was banned from theaters due to it being too graphic. It featured the image of two severed fingers, which make up the "II" in the title. A second poster was released that cropped out of the bloody "stumps" at the bottom of the fingers.

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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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