(Archived items are listed oldest to most recent)

Casting decisions announced. The lead for the film has fallen to Naomi Watts (right, recently of Mulholland Drive), who will be playing Rachel Keller, a news reporter at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Entertainment Weekly reports the part was first offered to Jennifer Connelly and Gwyneth Paltrow, with Watts finally beating out Kate Beckinsale for the role. Joining Watts is New Zealander Martin Henderson (Windtalkers) as her photojournalist ex-husband Noah, and David Dorfman (Panic) as her son Aidan.

Variety also lists Rachael Bella, Amber Tamblyn, and Brian Cox (Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter) as appearing in the film, but fails to mention Daveigh Chase (Donnie Darko, bottom right), whose casting was announced in October. Chase's character in the film is still not official, but we have received word that she will be playing a young Sadako, named Samara Morgan in the remake, and had to undergo several hours of pre-production work at Rick Baker's makeup studio for the role. She has apparently shot some of her scenes in Washington, and should again be involved in filming now that the crew has returned to California. As for the other cast members, the IMDB lists Cox as Samara's father Richard, and Tamblyn as Katie, whom we know is one of the teenagers to view the cursed videotape.

Changes are afoot. An e-mail from someone calling himself "The Moleman" informs us that in the movie Samara and her mother lived on a ranch and raised horses, but that the girl's unnatural powers caused many of the horses to commit suicide. This information matches a story on Coming Attractions regarding the Quincy Street shoot (see below). Also, pictures of a large, bright orange tree posted on the same site have caused something of a stir, as no such object appears either in the novel or the theatrical release. Sources inform us that the tree, which is meant to appear burning, will be used for one of the images on the cursed video.

Remake not to film as "Static." Rumors that the remake had changed to this working title were proved groundless thanks to an e-mail from producer Roy Lee, who assured me that, "Static is definitely not the title of the movie. The MPAA [has] cleared the title The Ring for release in the U.S."

25 February, 2002: An article in the Hollywood Reporter states that, in order to evoke the feel of the original Japanese title, the remake has become simply Ring.

Filming Begins in Port Townsend, WA. Principle shooting kicked off November 7th at Fort Worden State Park, with casting agents using 15 out of some eight hundred locals that signed on as extras. The crew returned to Port Townsend for two weeks of filming in early December, to shoot a scene near the Quincy Street dock of a CGI horse committing suicide (PT Guide). Incidentally, filming for the remake was changed from Boston to Seattle after a delay in Boston caused production designer Tom Duffield to miss his scheduled Sept. 11 flight on doomed American Airlines Flight 11 (Click here for more).

More tales from the set. Seattle resident Rebecca Ashburn wrote in to report that film crew and caterers had "set up shop" behind her place of employment and underneath the Alaskan Way Viaduct. "There were utility vehicles spraying all the cars in the parking lot with water," she wrote, "a kind of paradox because the cars are parked directly under the viaduct." She notes seeing a "frantic-looking driver (Naomi?) with long blond hair, weaving down this 'alley' of parked cars, avoiding 3 other cars which jerked out of the way. From afar, it looked very coordinated. But they were filming from up close, following the driver almost side-by-side (separated by the row of cars)."

Filming concluded December 21st, with a shoot at Emerald Glen Farms in Monroe, WA.

Crew returns to California. 17 January, 2002. An anonymous e-mail informed us that production crew is laying down cable and preparing to shoot at a newspaper in southern CA.

Cameo role decided 17 February, 2002. Last month (31 January) we announced that DreamWorks was looking to add a "cool cameo role" for a part being written into the script. We have now learned that the part has been filled by Chris Cooper (American Beauty). No word yet as to the nature of the cameo, though it appears to be a pivotal one.

Gag advertisement released. 21 February, 2002. On the back of the official comic adaptation for the upcoming The Time Machine (also to be released by DreamWorks) was printed the following gag ad, quite clearly a teaser for the upcoming Ring. Click here to see the ad. (Thanks to Creature Corner).

The Ring gets reverse-imorted. 24 February, 2002. Received word that the remake is already scheduled for a September release in Japan via the Toho distribution arm. If true, this would give DreamWorks' Ring as timely a release as that of Star Wars: Episode One, which also opened in Japan within one month of its American debut (as opposed to the usual six).

Release date may be pushed back. 8 April, 2002. The latest buzz: DreamWorks may delay release from August 9th to as late as October. A preliminary edit of the film is rumored to be completed within the next few weeks.

Ring teaser trailer online. 17 April, 2002. DreamWorks now has a teaser trailer for Ring hidden on its site. To access, go to DreamWorks.com and click on movies. From the movies page, move your mouse into the blue area above the DreamWorks logo. The picture for Road to Perdition will disappear, replaced by flashing with a red circle in the middle. Scroll down into the flashing area and left click.

The (very, very cool) images were supposedly created for the trailer, and not taken from the movie itself. You saw it here first!

The story comes together. 23 April, 2002. Keen-eyed viewers of the above teaser have no doubt been trying to isolate some of the images in an effort to glean hints to the story. The screaming face is obvious, but what about the weird melting shape that appears toward the end of the teaser? I've heard it described as looking vaguely like a horse (which would make sense, considering the rumor of Samara Morgan and the horses on her mother's ranch), but I thought it looked more like the body of a horse melting into a shoreline. Watch the teaser again, and note the glare coming from the top right corner. Couldn't that be a lighthouse? But what possible bearing could a lighthouse have to Ring?

Wonder no more. The latest rumor to fall into my greedy hands: In transplating Ring to American shores, the image of Mt. Mihara has been replaced by a lighthouse standing upon some rocky shore. Given the paucity of active volcanoes on the American mainland, the substitution of a lighthouse actually comes closer to capturing the feel of the novel (where, instead of a newspaper clipping, Asakawa's discovery is a picture of Mt. Mihara matching that which appeared briefly in the cursed video).

Trailer to make its appearance. 29 April, 2002. Creature Corner reports that a "preview" of the remake is to be shown at the upcoming Fangoria Weekend of Horrors. This will most probably be in the form of the trailer, as the movie itself is still in the process of being edited.

Ring poster released. 26 May, 2002. Had the following post on the Ring forum: "A couple of weeks ago when I went to see Spider-Man at the Sherman Oaks Galleria here in Southern California, there hung on the windows a set of fairly large posters of upcoming DreamWorks releases: Spirit, Road to Perdition, The Tuxedo... and Ring.

"It wasn't really much of a poster, just a still image of Naomi Watts as Rachel, the 'Asakawa' character, standing on a sidewalk holding the hand of her son (the 'Yoichi' of the movie, of course), who has some sort of flower in his hand. Below, in big, simple letters, it read Ring 10-18-02." (Thanks mikejonas).

Official Ring site prepares to go online. 6 June, 2002. The teaser trailer can now be found at a new site called ring-themovie.com. While the site currently consists only of the teaser, its banner reads "Official Movie Site Video, Trailer, Preview, Download, Photos, Pictures, Film, Pic, Cast Bios, Image Gallery, Scenes," which would imply that a wealth of Ring-related content is in the works (Thanks kelemichele).

More changes in store says Sci-Fi Wire. 14 June, 2002. Actors Martin Henderson and Chris Cooper spoke briefly on their characters in a recent article on scifi.com, the site for cable TV's Sci-Fi Channel. In a further depature from the source material, Henderson states that his character Noah (Takayama Ryuji in the original) is a photographer who specializes in capturing images of "international strife," while Cooper says that he plays a serial killer of children who comes into possession of the tape. Read the article