Scooby-Doo (film)/Production

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. Mike Myers was reported to be co-writing the screenplay with Jay Kogan in July 1998, and was later on board to play Shaggy as well. 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 Sarah Michelle 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 said her character and Linda 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 film's 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.
=== Casting ===
Actors Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar, who both previously worked together in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and portray Fred and Daphne, are romantically involved in both the film and reality. This film marks the first time in the franchise's history where the characters are portrayed as a couple. The pair married shortly after the film was released. Prinze said of his character, "[He] always showed more arrogance than everyone else. So in the movie, I took the opportunity to make him as narcissistic and self-loving as possible."
Jim Carrey was originally attached to play Shaggy, while Mike Myers also expressed interest in the role. Lochlyn Munro also auditioned for the role. The role was eventually given to Matthew Lillard. When asked about watching several cartoons before playing Shaggy, Lillard responded, "Everything I could get my hands on. If I ever have to see another episode of Scooby-Doo, it will be way too soon." Lillard would continue voicing Shaggy in the rest of the Scooby-Doo media starting in 2010, at the request of the character's original voice actor Casey Kasem, who had stepped down due to health issues; he would also poke fun at this appearance in the following year's Looney Tunes: Back in Action, where an animated Shaggy and Scooby voice their grievances over Lillard's portrayal during a lunch in the Warner Bros. studio cafeteria and threaten him to portray the character better in the sequel.
Isla Fisher grew up watching Scooby-Doo in Australia, and said that the "best part of making this movie was being part of an institution, something that has been in people's childhoods and is something that means a lot to a lot of people." Linda Cardellini was also a fan of the Scooby-Doo series.
Category:Production