page_title: Scooby-Doo (film)
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Scooby-Doo (film) / Production / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: The Mystery Machine at San Diego Comic-Con International in 2013
context_page_description: Scooby-Doo is a 2002 American live-action/computer-animated supernatural adventure horror comedy film based on the long-running Hanna-Barbera animated television franchise of the same name. The first installment in the Scooby-Doo live-action film series, the film was directed by Raja Gosnell from a screenplay by James Gunn, and stars Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini, Isla Fisher and Rowan Atkinson. The plot revolves around Mystery Incorporated, a group of four young adults and a dog who solve mysteries, who reunite after a two-year disbandment, to investigate a mystery on a popular horror resort.
  Filming took place in and around Queensland, Australia, on a budget of $84 million. The film was released on June 14, 2002, and despite negative reviews, grossed $275 million worldwide. Reggae artist Shaggy and rock group MxPx performed different versions of the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! theme song. The Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster, a ride based on the film, was built in Warner Bros. Movie World in Gold Coast, Australia in 2003. This is the last time William Hanna served as an executive producer before his death on March 22, 2001.
context_section_description: Producer Charles Roven began developing a live-action treatment of Scooby-Doo in 1994. By the end of the decade, the combined popularity of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, along with the addition of the script and updated digital animation led Warner Bros. to fast track production of the film. In October 2000, the film was officially given the green light. Variety reported that Raja Gosnell had been hired to direct the film.
  The film was shot on location in and around Queensland, Australia. Production was started on February 12, 2001 at the Warner Bros. Movie World theme park, with over 400 cast and crew also taking over Tangalooma Island Resort for six weeks to film all the scenes set on Spooky Island. Production wrapped in June 2001. The film was originally set to have a much darker tone, essentially poking fun at the original series, much like The Brady Bunch Movie, and was set for a PG-13 rating. Shaggy was set to be a stoner, and there were many marijuana references.
  Several rumors about these aspects in the original cartoon series were passed around by fans of the original and were to be incorporated into the live action film. In March 2001, one month into filming, the first official cast picture was released.
  According to Gellar, after the cast had signed on there was a change, and the film became more family friendly, though some of the original adult jokes are still in the film. They are also included in deleted scenes on the home media releases.
  Gellar also said her character and Cardellini's shared an onscreen kiss that did not make the final film. "It wasn't just, like, for fun," she said, explaining it took place in the body-switching scene. "Initially in the soul-swapping scene Velma and Daphne couldn't seem to get their souls back together in the woods. And so the way they found was to kiss and the souls went back into proper alignment."
  In 2017, the 15th anniversary of the release of the film, James Gunn, the screenwriter, revealed in a Facebook post that there was an R-rated cut of Scooby-Doo and that CGI was used to remove cleavage of the female cast members.
caption: The Mystery Machine from the film at San Diego Comic-Con International in 2013
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