Rumors about the live action Scooby Doo movie

Here is a look at some of the rumors and information that proceeded the release of the film!

"It's going to be rated PG, but as producer Richard Suckle says, "We're going to push the PG as far as we can." And, it looks like it's going to have a lot of fun humor that people of all ages can appreciate"

From Zap2it:

Lots of funny cameos are planned for a scene where the gang thinks everyone is wearing a fake face. They take off a series of masks. Get ready to be surprised — VERY surprised!

Scooby is going to look just like the dog in the cartoon, but computer generated 95 percent of the time. There will be some animatronix Scooby scenes, as well.

To help the actors keep the line of site for the big Great Dane that isn't there, a dwarf named Chris played the part of the dog, but will be screened out.

From Smilin' Jack Down Under:

When we first arrived at the set, we first saw the little person who was Scooby's stand-in walking around carrying his dog costume. Not Scooby. Scooby is going to be totally CG. The next pseudo-Scoob we saw was a "stuffy" they used on set to put in scenes to get eye-lines and use as a prop. ..........

They spent a long time developing the look even before they knew it was going to be a fully CGI character (except for a couple of shots where his tail or paw will come into play as a practical) because they knew they had to get it right. When I looked around on the walls in the art department scanning for a shot of Scooby and finally saw the face, I was actually relieved. It's a three-dimensional version of Scooby-Doo, that's it. It's not the "real dog" Brain from Inspector Gadget, it wasn't the real-life CG of Babe or Cats & Dogs, it was Scooby in 3-D like Homer in the 3-D episode of The Simpsons or something out of Shrek. Like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, they are going to just fully-CG the Great Dane into the movie as a character and there you have it. As far as the "look" of Scooby goes, they nailed it. It's straight out of the cartoon for those of you who thought it would be a radical re-design.
Later in the day, we did get to meet the Scooby heads-on-a-stick, the little puppets they use to make eye-lines and placement pieces for the CG to be filled in later (after every shot, the effects guys rush over and take careful measurements of everything to know where to put the dog later, just like they did with AMEE in Red Planet). The Scooby heads and the face on the stuffy (bag-removed) look like Scooby Doo, there's no question. It is slightly modified to be more rounded and a little more life-like, but if I snuck up behind you with one of the heads and asked you to identify who was on the end, you'd know it was Scooby. As that was one of the main reasons I wanted to hit this set, that's why I wrote all about that, first.

Based upon: The various Saturday morning animated TV shows that started in 1969 with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? Here's a bit of trivia... Scooby-Doo's cast was loosely based upon the characters in the Beatnik teen sitcom, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. (well, not Scooby)

Plot Line: (Changed!) Will be a scary movie, as in real fright! "One thing Gunn and Roven don't want Scooby-Doo to be is in the footsteps of the recent Viva Rock Vegas Flintstones picture." [Gunn] didn't feel that worked and for Scooby-Doo that's not what they're going for as they're not making an animated pic," writes Smilin' Jack. "He said that his goal was to keep the integrity of the show and not have it be all 'winking at the camera'."

NEW! Synopsis: The Mystery Ink team break up Beatles-style after solving yet another baffling mystery. The famous five go their separate ways and loose contact, each pursuing their own tentative dreams. Two years later Shaggy and Scooby-Doo instigate a reunion to help solve the mystery of a spooky theme park haunted by real-life demons.

James Gunn talks about the project! Click Here "The problem with most cartoons-to-movies is that they attempt to be exact replicas of the cartoons, people speaking like cartoons, etc. I never wanted to simply watch a couple hundred episodes of Scooby-Doo cartoons and then vomit them out in a different order, longer and with real people. Instead, I wanted to say what don't we see on the show? In essence, if they are real, who are they?" (Dark Horizons, Daily Radar)

Locations: Warner Roadshow Movie World theme park and various locations around South East Queensland.

Progress: Almost all field footage has been completed!
Now they are working in the studio on blue-screen shots and post-production has begun!

Scooby Doo: The latest casting news concerns the character most important to this entire production, the snacktacular wonder dog Scooby-Doo. Well, you can stop training your canines to solve crimes in hopes of an audition because, according to director Raja Gosnell, Scooby will grace the silver screen entirely through the magic of CGI. (see above)

Shaggy:

Matthew Lillard

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Scream star Matthew Lillard is playing Shaggy... Though Lillard's self-mocking, frenzied style could easily work with the cartoonish story line, the actor doesn't quite have the drawing power of another leading man recommended to play Shaggy, crass comedian Tom Green. Looks like Mat beat him out tho!!

Note: Lillard teamed up with Freddie Prinze Jr. on Catch, She's All That, and Wing Commander.

Freddy:

Freddie Prinze Jr.

Freddie Prinze Jr. solves the Scooby-Doo mystery that has haunted cartoon fans for years: Which way does Fred swing? "Everybody makes jokes about him because he wears an ascot, but he's big into Daphne," says Prinze, who's currently shooting the live-action film of the '70s cartoon in Queensland, Australia. But the dark-haired heartthrob, blond for the role, is having his own image issues these days. "I get my roots done now," Prinze says. "It's not very manly." He's having better luck with Fred's psyche, because he's also big into Daphne, or at least the actress who plays her, Sarah Michelle Gellar. The two have been a couple "for a while," he says, making their time Down Under — his first visit — fairly uplifting. "It couldn't be better," Prinze says. "It's pretty much the easiest job I ever had to do: I don't have to be away from my girl, and our days off are well-spent." "She's a genius," Prinze says about Gellar. Director Raja Gosnell "put his hands together and bowed to her because she was so awesome. He does that pretty much after every take she does. He hasn't bowed to me, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but she's absolutely phenomenal." If that weren't enough, Prinze is a lifelong Scooby fan: "I have every episode made on tape in my basement at my mother's house. I watch Scooby-Doo every day. I don't watch regular TV, just cartoons."
From USA Today

Daphne:

Sarah Michelle Gellar

On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sarah plays the leader of the ragtag ghoul and vamp hunting team known as the "Scooby gang" Too good for Scooby? Sarah insists there's no truth to the reports that she's starring. She told January's issue of Seventeen, "When doing a film such as Harvard Man, with that high of content and level, I doubt any actor would then stoop to do a Disney genre-type movie. Freddie [Prinze Jr.] has signed on to it, but I haven't even looked over the script."
OH Really????...... (See shots from the set!)
Wonder how crow tastes!

Velma:

Linda Cardellini

Just add glasses!

Linda Cardellini (Legally Blonde)(Freaks & Geeks) is playing Velma. From what I can see of the test footage, she does quite well! Even the voice!

It takes a special person to play Velma. Having seen a recent interview, I think they have that person!

Mondavarious:

Rowan Atkinson

Sounds cool!

The Villain!

(or is he ...?)

Every show needs one! Looks like Scooby and the gang will be facing the one and only Mr. Bean! Before the movie, Mr Bean was a TV show with a series of sketches with this odd man. In every episode he gets up to strange nonsense.

It is going to be very interesting to see how he fills out the roll.
Rowan Atkinson will indeed be playing Mondavarious, "the mysterious owner of Spooky Island and procurer of the Mystery Inc. group's services."

Mary Jane:

(Shaggy's Girlfriend)

Isla Fisher

Shaggy's Girlfriend ??

Australian actress Isla Fisher has been cast in Scooby-Doo. The 25-year-old redhead has done a number of TV shows including Home and Away and Oliver Twist. Fisher will be playing the role of Mary Jane, a girl that Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) falls head over heels for!

(Thanks for the info! CA Website)

Update! Notes: Fresh from the CA Website...
January 5, 2001... "Heard that Sarah Michelle Gellar is using her February 'Buffy' hiatus to film Scooby in Australia. She will then put the finishing touches on the film over the summer before going onto the 6th season of 'Buffy'. Hummmm..... (Past tense now!)
And here's an interesting bit: Warner Bros. Feature Animation is planning to re-open their CG dept at full force after "Osmosis Jones" to work on a digital version of Scooby-Doo. At the moment "Osmosis Jones" is their main priority. In November they were desperately looking for a CG effects animator to finish up some work on the film.

(Shown at right) This photo was taken outside the Tennyson Power station in Brisbane, where the movie is indeed filming at the current time. The van was spotted on this flatbed just outside the power station's entrance.

February 26, 2001.... VIP TV star Pamela Anderson landed in the Gold Coast on last Thursday specifically to film a cameo role for the movie. Anderson stayed at Brisbane's Marriott hotel.

And the Critics Have Started !! After a small segment on Access Hollywood, showing shots from the set, as well as announcing the budget ( $80 million!), the critics have already started screaming that the movie is a bomb! I saw the segment and found it quite interesting. I think these people (critics) are having trouble reconciling the memory of a sixties bubblegum cartoon series, and anything that would work in today's society. Truth is, it should work just fine! This is a story about four teenagers (and their dog) on a frightening mission, it just happens to be Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby, whom we all know and love! The footage I saw left me with the impression that our gang did just fine in the new millennium, without having to break character!

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The Studio:	Movie World Studios
Production Company:	Gold Coast
Producer:	Chuck Roven
Director:	James Gunn (The Specials; cowriter of Tromeo and Juliet; he's also rewritten 13 Ghosts) Raja Gosnell (Confirmed) (Big Momma's House, Never Been Kissed, Home Alone 3)
Who's writing it:	Craig Titley, DOP David Eggby.
Filming:	Filming has started (February, 12th 2001) in Australia, in Queensland and the Gold Coast.
Release Date:	June 14th 2002
Distributor:	Warner / Roadshow