Development The first draft of the script was written by
Kevin Williamson in August 2000 and followed the exploits of a New York City serial killer who discovers that his lethal tendencies are due to his lycanthrope nature. Both screenwriters
Sean Hood and
Tony Gayton did rewrites of Williamson's original script during the development process. Dimension Films co-founder
Bob Weinstein announced in October 2002 that
Cursed would "reinvent the werewolf genre," and that Craven would direct, with the movie being officially released on August 8, 2003. "Wes and Kevin are a dynamic team, and we are confident that their collaboration will prove to be a winner," Weinstein stated. In December 2002, a press release for the project described
Cursed as a "modern, hip twist on the classic werewolf tale" and Dimension Films also announced that
Academy Award winning
makeup effects designer
Rick Baker would be in charge of the overall design of the werewolves. Baker had originally turned down the offer due to the very limited time he had to create all the designs and eventually accepted at the only condition to be able to work without any studio interference.
Casting was originally cast as the male lead. The first of the three leads to be cast was 19-year-old
Jesse Eisenberg, star of the critically acclaimed indie
Roger Dodger, who was announced on March 3, 2003. It was also reported that
Kristina Anapau and
Judy Greer had joined the cast in supporting roles. On March 13, 2003, it was reported that
Christina Ricci had signed on to play the leading role of Ellie Harper, an associate producer on
The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn who is attacked by a werewolf after a car accident on
Mulholland Drive. and
John C. McGinley took part in the production as Jimmy's abusive dad. James Kallahan and
Michelle Krusiec rounded out the main cast as Ellie's co-workers Mark and Debbie. When production shut down and resumed with a new script, new roles were added and others were re-written. Skeet Ulrich was unsatisfied with his character's transformation and chose to drop out of the film. On December 1, 2003,
Joshua Jackson was cast as the new male lead (renamed Jack and retooled as Ellie's boyfriend), along with
Portia De Rossi (who replaced Illeana Douglas as Zela),
Smallville regular
Michael Rosenbaum (taking over James Callahan as Ellie's assistant, now named Kyle) and R&B singer
Mýa as Jenny (previously played by Mandy Moore).
Lance Bass of
*NSYNC joined the cast in a cameo appearance as himself. Scott Foley was originally supposed to reprise the role of Kyle (now turned into Ellie's assistant) but ultimately dropped out as well. James Brolin, Robert Forster, Corey Feldman, Omar Epps, Heather Langenkamp and John C. McGinley were all written out from the new version of the script and could not reprise their roles.
Filming Principal photography was supposed to start on January 27, in order to meet the already-locked release date of August 8, 2003, but delays in pre-production forced Dimension Films to push the start date back to mid-March. In late January, a new release date was announced and set on February 4, 2004. the same used for
Sunnydale High on
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and West Beverly High on
Beverly Hills, 90210 and its spin-off
90210. Filming also occurred at
Verdugo Hills High School for the scenes involving Jimmy Myers, Jesse Eisenberg's character. Mandy Moore's opening scene was shot over a 2-night period on the roof of The Bel Age Hotel in Hollywood. Singer
Sheila E. appeared in this scene as herself, playing with her band at the costume ball for PETA. The car accident was shot on
Mulholland Drive and some interiors were built inside the L.A. Center Studios. More scenes were filmed at the
Santa Monica Pier and in
Hollywood Boulevard.
Entertainment Tonight did interviews with Ulrich and Ricci when original version was being filmed, and their report included behind the scenes footage of some scenes from it, like Ulrich's character Vince walking near the pier at night, another scene in same location showing him jumping down on beach and landing on all fours, scene where he and Ricci's character Ellie are running out of her house and another scene after that one where they jump down to the streets which based on the original script, was the beginning of the scene where werewolf chases after them but they get to Vince's limousine and ultimately manage to escape. In early June 2003, after 54 days of filming and with only about six days left to shoot the final confrontation at the Hollywood Wax Museum, Dimension Films decided to put the movie on hold because top executives at the company were not happy with the film's ending or how the special effects were progressing, specifically the look of the film's lead lupine.
Rick Baker created the original design of the werewolf. Rick Baker was preparing the final transformation effects when production stopped and asked Weinstein to let his team finish the work in order for it to be ready for the reshoot. "We were doing some really cool transformation stuff [but] it wasn't quite done so I said, 'Listen, if you ever think the film's gonna pick up again, if you can keep a number of my people on for another month we can have this transformation stuff, we'll put it in a box and we'll be ready to go. If they disperse now it's gonna be like starting again because I need to have the same people." Weinstein eventually refused.
Rick Baker, who had created the original werewolf design, left the project because of scheduling conflicts The new ending depicted Jake as the main villain, willing to kill both Ellie and Jimmy. According to Patrick Lussier, the final budget for the film was close to $90–100 million. In the final round of reshoots, werewolf actor
Derek Mears improvised the infamous shot of the werewolf flipping off Ellie and Jimmy during rehearsal with Craven.
Scott Nimerfro was at one point brought in during reshoots to script new scenes, including an opening sequence of the werewolf jumping through the
Hollywood sign that was scrapped due to budget limits. In 2014,
Judy Greer spoke of the film in an interview: "I don't know why that movie got so fucked up. I don't understand it. I thought the script was fine. Honest to god, I didn't get the big deal. I don't know who kept making them fuck with it. Then we shot the movie for, like, seven years. I think they said we had four movies worth of footage. It was so fun, but so weird. I don't get it. I couldn't figure it out." In 2018, Christina Ricci also spoke briefly about the film in an interview: "It was one of those studio movies that just got horribly screwed up." In 2019, Jesse Eisenberg gave his thoughts about the troubled production and the film: "The first movie was more interesting and provocative. I don't know why it wasn't working. Now that we know the behind-the-scenes of the Weinstein company, it makes sense as to why it was so chaotic." About the troubled production, he said: "They filmed 90% of the bigger budget version… the first movie was this very splashy thing. The second version was definitely cutting corners in a lot of different ways. And the plot? I thought it was so stupid. I thought the plot was so cliché. They made us brother and sister? The things that they kept [from the original film] were little snippets. Like a car rolling down a hill. They kept that shot." Craven and Lussier would move on to
Red Eye, and during that film's post-production they would learn that
Cursed would be edited down to accommodate a PG-13 rating. A nightmare sequence featuring Jake's throat getting ripped out by Ellie was redone without Craven, instead with
Joel Soisson serving as director. ==Soundtrack==