One of the best ‘Saw’ movies was not originally supposed to be part of the legendary horror franchise – and was almost produced in Germany!

The “Saw” series has not only recently become a fixture in the horror genre, the popularity of which can be measured with major franchises such as “Halloween” or “Friday the 13th”. The iconic “I Want To Play A Game”, the menacing sounds of the theme song “Hello Zepp” and of course the creepy clown doll Billy should be familiar to anyone even remotely connected to the genre. The series was so successful that the first installment, directed by The Conjuring creator James Wan, was followed by an annual sequel, just in time for Halloween.

This rhythm was maintained until the series came to a temporary end with “Saw VII – Completion”. But even that was far from over. After a break of several years, “Jigsaw” and “Saw: Spiral” and “Saw: Spiral” will be released in cinemas in 2017, each of which should go its own way. The release of a tenth representative of the “Saw” series is already planned for the near future. So it seems that the last game has not yet been played and that the ‘Saw’ universe has not only seen its fair share of sequels, but also a lot to come. But did you know that”Saw II‘, the first sequel of Darren Lynn Bousmanwasn’t originally meant to be part of the “Saw” universe?

“Saw II” was originally going to be “The Desperate”.

Around the same time that Saw hit theaters and became a hit with audiences, Darren Lynn Bousmann wrote a screenplay called The Desperate, which thematically and tonally fit the story of puzzle killer Jigsaw. It was rejected by almost all studios for this reason. Only from Europe did he receive the offer that he could make the film in Germany with a budget of 1 million dollars. When Bousman started looking for possible cameramen, he spoke to David A. Armstrong, who was already responsible for the camera in the first “Saw” film and would also illustrate the upcoming sequels.

Armstrong expressed his surprise that Bousman was doing such a project in Germany with such a small budget and asked if he could pass on the script. He pitched it to Greg Hoffman, who worked as a producer at Saw and eventually turned Bousman’s project into a big hit.

Lucky again!

In 2005 one of interview Bousman gave with Leigh Whannell, who starred in and wrote the screenplay for the first Saw film. Leigh Whannell is also on the road now, directing horror movies like Insidious: Chapter 3 and The Invisible Man. In the conversation, both talk about the “Saw II” origin story, which is widely regarded as one of the better parts of the franchise before the series itself became absurd. Bousman recalls Hoffman saying to him by telephone: “You’re not doing this in Germany, you’re coming to my office tomorrow!”

As the success of “Saw” became apparent and more sequels were quickly planned, the potential in Bousman’s template was recognized and it was quickly reworked into the second installment of the series. They wanted to act quickly and expand the “Jigsaw” brand while the hype of the first volume was still alive. Therefore, the first sequel was scheduled for 2005, just a year after the release of the predecessor.

Leigh Whannell supported Bousman as a co-writer and changed the screenplay with him: Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) was added as a character, the usual franchise twist was built in, and the people who were essentially taken from the original screenplay were moved to a completely different setting. . This created a story that deviated from what Bousman originally envisioned. A project that brought more than remarkable success: with a budget of $ 4 million, “Saw II” was able to bring in almost $ 148 million worldwide.