The Ring (live-action movie 2002)

The role of Rachel was first offered to Jennifer Connelly. The script was then offered to Gwyneth Paltrow, and then to Kate Beckinsale, and finally Naomi Watts.

Subliminal frames from the Ring video are inserted in the film. For example, the 'Ring' image can be glimpsed for a fraction of a second in the transition between the ferry/horse sequence and Rachel's car drive to Anna Morgan's farm on Moesko Island.

The other videos on the shelf where Rachel finds the Ring video are: Shattered (1991), Scent of a Woman (1992), Spontaneous Combustion (1990), Yor, the Hunter from the Future (1983), Sodom and Gomorrah (1962), The Looking Glass War (1969), Visions of a New World (1995) (V), Family Plot (1976), Steel Magnolias (1989), The Man from Snowy River (1982) and School Ties (1992).

In both the American and Japanese versions, the name of the little girl is connected to a story about death. The name "Samara" refers to a story retold by W. Somerset Maugham (Appointment in Samarra) about a man who meets Death in the marketplace and flees to the town of Samarra. The name "Sadako" refers to the true Japanese story: "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes", about a girl who was dying of Leukemia, (as a result of the atom bomb) and believed that she would survive if she made 1,000 origami cranes.

Long before the movie premiered, the killer video was used as a commercial. The commercial did not mention any movie for nearly a month.

The cursed "video" is available as an easter egg on the DVD. Select look here and press down and your cursor will disappear. Press enter. This has an interesting feature; your remote control is disabled. Once the "video" has started playing, you can't stop it, pause it, fast-forward it, or return to the menu. Unless you turn off the TV, you're forced to watch the whole thing. When it's over, the DVD returns to the menu, then you hear a phone ring twice before you're given control over your remote again.

Scott Frank revised the screenplay.

The pen that Rachel Keller uses throughout the film is a Sensa.

In the space of four years since the original Ring, the production budget multiplied roughly forty-fold.

Among Samara's medical files is a piece of paper containing the name "Anna" and oriental writing. The writing is a combination of Chinese and Japanese letters, and roughly translated it is a prescription for "purging agents".

As of September 2010, this movie is the highest grossing Horror Remake in history at the worldwide box office, with a total gross of over 249 million.

Although the meaning of the ring is ambiguous, Kôji Suzuki, the author of the original novel always intended it to mean the cyclical nature of the plot.