Urban legends:  The most enduring are often the most disturbing--stories of murder and mayhem happening to ordinary people that are shared around campfires, retold at slumber parties and spread through chain emails.  Some may have started as simple gossip or rumors that, like an old-fashioned game of telephone, were embellished and eventually grew into myth as they passed from person to person.  However, there is one terrifying thought about any urban legend…that it may have been born of the truth.

"There is a viral aspect to an urban myth--the way it's told, the way it's repeated, the way it catches on…  No one can ever really know the truth that possibly lies behind it.  Kôji Suzuki's book Ringu was supposedly based on an urban myth.  But it's a 'chicken and the egg' thing; I don't believe we'll ever know the origins for sure," director Gore Verbinski remarks.

Kôji Suzuki, who wrote the book--actually a series of novels--was once a somewhat obscure writer, but is now referred to as the Stephen King of Japan.  Japanese director Hideo Nakata brought the story to the screen in his gothic horror mystery "Ringu," which was released in January 1998.  It quickly became a phenomenon, spawning the most successful horror film franchise in the history of the Japanese cinema, as well as a television series, and Manga, a kind of Japanese comic book or graphic novel.  Soon after the release of "Ringu," a whole new genre of Japanese films emerged--psycho-horror, or J-horror as it's often called--which exploded into Japan's multiplexes.  Whether or not it had its origins in an urban legend, "Ringu" resulted in one that transfixed readers and moviegoers alike in Japan and much of Southeast Asia, and would soon capture the attention of people on the other side of the world.

DreamWorks executive Mark Sourian was the first at the studio to see the movie, and immediately called producers and co-heads of DreamWorks Pictures Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald.  "Mark said, 'I've just seen the scariest movie I have ever seen in my life.  You have to see it right away,'" Parkes recalls.  "Laurie and I cancelled everything and watched the movie on videotape, which, come to think of it, was appropriate for this film.  We were both frightened and mesmerized by it, and immediately decided we were going to remake this movie."

MacDonald adds, "We felt from the beginning that it was a strong idea, and the Japanese movie had given us a great template for our movie, not just in the premise, but tonally.  Another of the movie's strengths was its wonderfully incongruous marriage of a kind of pop teenage story with a high concept movie that revealed itself in a very surprising way--more mysterious, more evocative, and with underlying emotional issues that you wouldn't necessarily expect from the genre."

"The allure of good thrillers is to get that adrenaline rush, to be on the edge of your seat without actually being in danger.  The best ones are equal parts intellectual exercise, emotional exercise and visceral experience.  They engage your mind and involve you intellectually, but the payoff is the scare…the scream.  I guess that's why as filmmakers, we look for them, and as moviegoers, we can't wait to see them," Parkes comments.

To direct the movie, the first and only person the producers approached was Gore Verbinski, who had made his feature film directorial debut on DreamWorks' offbeat comedy hit "Mouse Hunt."  "The main reason we chose Gore was that he is just a consummate visualist," Parkes says.  "Having worked with him before, we felt his sensibility was right for this and that he would be intrigued by both the story possibilities and the visual possibilities.  He has the expertise and the artistry to create images that in and of themselves can involve you and truly scare you."

Verbinski relates, "The first time I watched the original 'Ringu' was on a VHS tape that was probably seven generations down.  It was really poor quality, but actually that added to the mystique, especially when I realized that this was a movie about a videotape.  There is something about that image of a seemingly innocuous videotape…just sitting there…unlabeled.  If you are aware of the myth, the object itself becomes both tempting and haunting."

"There are unmarked videos in everyone's house," MacDonald notes.  "There are always those unlabeled tapes where you can't remember what's on them; and the television is another thing that is part of everyone's life.  The idea that these two everyday items could be at the center of this, could lead you to your death, can really get under your skin."

Verbinski expounds, "In 'The Ring,' there is a tape, seemingly like any of those unmarked tapes, but if you watch it the phone rings, and then there's the warning that you have seven days left to live.  So it is not enough that you will die; for seven days you know you are going to die.  There is that desperation as you get closer to the end and start to feel the walls closing in on you.  And that, I think, brings a uniqueness to the horror.

"Our central character, Rachel, is an investigative reporter, who learns about the tape through a personal tragedy, when her niece, Katie, becomes its latest victim," the director continues.  "Then the questions begin: Where is the tape?  Where did it come from?  Who made it?  Is it haunted?…  When Rachel finally gets her hands on the tape, she watches it--of course."

"This is definitely a genre film, but what I think sets it apart is the story is very clean, very straightforward and moves with a lot of momentum," says Naomi Watts, the Australian actress who last year drew critical and audience acclaim for her work in David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive". "You watch this video--which is incredibly scary on its own--then the phone rings and you're told you have seven days to live.  Right there, that one sentence sets up the kind of suspense that makes your skin crawl and the hair stand up on the back of your neck."

The actress adds that she also responded to the character of Rachel, whom she describes as "very driven and strong, but at the same time, she's a flawed person, which made her more interesting to play.  She's a mom, but perhaps not the best mother.  She is obsessed with her own life and career until her sister asks for her help in finding out the cause of her daughter's--Rachel's niece's--death.  At first, all this information is coming at her about a videotape that seems ridiculously implausible…nothing more than teenage gossip.  But then she finds it and watches it and the phone rings...  She gets more and more scared as coincidences begin to happen that really start to tap into her own psychological beliefs and self-doubt.  Could this be true?"

New Zealand-born actor Martin Henderson was cast as Noah. Long before he came to the set, however, Henderson recalls reading Ehren Kruger's screenplay and being immediately hooked.  "I thought it was extremely scary, and every time I read it I became more aware of the little subliminal things that you don't notice at first.  I think that's the beauty of this movie; you don't know where the evil is coming from.  There are images on the tape, and as the movie progresses, you begin to see the connection and understand the origin.  Hopefully, the audience will be taken on that ride."

Rachel and Noah's desperate search for the answers that might save their lives and the life of Aidan eventually leads them to Samara's last living connection to the world: her father, Richard Morgan, played by veteran, award-winning actor Brian Cox.  Like his fellow actors, Brian Cox was captivated by the screenplay.  "I thought it was a great yarn, a real page turner," he remarks.  "I was intrigued by it, by where it was going…the twists and turns in the story.  That's basically what makes a good script in my opinion."

For Gore Verbinski, one of the first and most daunting challenges was to create the ominous videotape that is at the center of "The Ring."  "The tape had to serve two functions," he notes.  "It had to contain clues to its origin and to understanding why it was created.  As abstract as it appears at first viewing, as you progress, those images have to have a reason to be.  The video also had to be bizarre, to shock you without seeming to have been designed to do so.  That's a tricky thing to do.  I started with some of the key images from the Japanese film, because when you remake a movie, you want to keep the great moments from the original.  Then, for me personally, I drew on what scared me, my own kind of horrors, and tried to include them in a way that was compelling, but could also make sense from the perspective of the person who made the video."

"Our journey began with a videotape that comes with a warning.  Yet, it is the very warning that makes it all the more interesting to us," Gore Verbinski muses.  "Taboos are always accompanied by temptation; it's an essential quality of human nature--to discover the forbidden.  Knowing this about us is what makes the evil essence of 'The Ring' all the more horrifying."

The director continues, "I am a big fan of horror films.  But there are the ones that simply shock you, and there are the ones that operate more subversively.  These have a particular psychological manipulation going on that the viewer is not completely aware of.  When they work, there can be a tremendous residual effect--those films stay with you longer, because they get under your skin.  All horror films are derived from an essentially very simple premise, as it is in our film.  It is only in the execution that certain films elevate themselves beyond the genre.  These are the ones that inspire me because they scare me the most.  Ultimately, it is about the craft."

Crafting "The Ring" involved a creative team that included director of photography Bojan Bazelli, production designer Tom Duffield, costume designer Julie Weiss, editor Craig Wood, Oscar^®-winning composer Hans Zimmer, multiple Oscar^®-winning special make-up effects artist Rick Baker, and Oscar^®-winning visual effects supervisor Charles Gibson.

GORE VERBINSKI (Director) made his feature film directorial debut with DreamWorks' comedy hit "Mouse Hunt," starring Nathan Lane.  He followed with the action comedy "The Mexican," starring Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini. Verbinski was already an award-winning commercial director when he made the transition to films.  He has been honored with four Clio Awards and a Cannes Silver Lion Award for his innovative work on an assortment of memorable advertising spots. Verbinski graduated from UCLA in 1987 with a B.A. in Motion Pictures & Television and started his career directing music videos for Los Angeles-based Limelight Pictures.  His award-winning commercials include Nike's "100 Foot Hoop," featuring Michael Jordan, and the first of the popular Budweiser "Frogs" spots.  In addition, he directed television commercials for such notable brand names as Nike, Budweiser, Coca Cola, 7-Up, Canon and United Airlines.  Verbinski also wrote and directed the low-budget short film "The Ritual."

EHREN KRUGER (Screenwriter) He received the 1996 Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' prestigious Nicholl Fellowship-- presented through an international competition for new screenwriters--for his screenplay "Arlington Road." Kruger also wrote the hit horror sequel "Scream 3," the action thriller "Reindeer Games," and the sci-fi thriller "Impostor."

HANS ZIMMER (Composer) won the Golden Globe Award last year, in addition to receiving his seventh Oscar^â nomination, for the award-winning hit "Gladiator."  In 1994, he won both the Academy Award^â and a Golden Globe Award for his score for the blockbuster "The Lion King," which also spawned one of the most successful soundtrack albums ever.  Zimmer has also garnered Oscar^â nominations for "The Prince of Egypt," "The Thin Red Line," "As Good As It Gets," "Rain Man" and "The Preacher's Wife."  This year, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his score for "Pearl Harbor." Zimmer's music for "The Lion King" has been continuing to draw applause in the award-winning stage production of the musical.  The show earned the 1998 Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Album.  The composer also reunited with "The Lion King" songwriters Elton John and Tim Rice for DreamWorks' animated musical "The Road to El Dorado." Zimmer has composed the music for over 70 feature films, most recently scoring the animated adventure "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron," and collaborating again with "Gladiator" director Ridley Scott on "Black Hawk Down" and "Hannibal."  His diverse list of credits also includes "Crimson Tide," for which he won a Grammy, "Thelma & Louise," "Driving Miss Daisy," "Mission: Impossible 2," "The Peacemaker," "The Rock," "Broken Arrow," "Nine Months," "Beyond Rangoon," "Cool Runnings," "A League of Their Own," "Black Rain," "Backdraft," "Green Card," "True Romance," "Days of Thunder" and "My Beautiful Launderette." In addition to his composing work, Zimmer heads DreamWorks' film music division.  His appointment marks the first time that a composer has headed the music department of a major studio since the days of Dimitri Tiomkin at MGM and Alfred Newman at Twentieth Century Fox.

RICK BAKER (Special Makeup Effects Designer), one of the most honored makeup artists in history, is a six-time Academy Award^® winner in the category of Best Achievement in Makeup for his work on the films "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "Men in Black," "The Nutty Professor," "Ed Wood," "Harry and the Hendersons" and "An American Werewolf in London."  Additionally, he has been Oscar^®-nominated for the films "Life," "Mighty Joe Young," "Coming to America" and "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan." Baker's makeup transformations have also been seen in such films as "Men in Black 2," Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes," "The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps," "Escape From L.A.," "Batman Forever," "Wolf," "The Rocketeer," "Gorillas in the Mist," "The Howling," "The Fury" and the famous cantina sequence in the original "Star Wars." Baker won an Emmy Award for his work on the acclaimed miniseries "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," and earned Emmy nominations for the series "Beauty and the Beast" and miniseries "Something is Out There."  His other television credits include the series "Harry and the Hendersons" and "Werewolf."  In addition, he did Michael Jackson's makeup for the award-winning video "Thriller," as well as "Captain Eo."
Back to Menu