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.
The massive success of The Sixth Sense (1999) was what gave Paramount Pictures the confidence to greenlight a remake of Ringu (1998), due to the rise in popularity of supernatural mysteries and thrillers.
Long before the movie premiered, the killer video was used as a commercial. The commercial did not mention any movie for nearly a month.
Gore Verbinski deliberately chose not to cast major stars as any of the main or supporting characters, as he wanted the film to be discovered by audiences. Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson and Amber Tamblyn would receive retroactive recognition for this film.
For the choice of the film's color, it was decided that everything was to be tinged with the color green to give the film a sickly, unnatural feeling. Sets were also lit in a way that none of the characters have a shadow, to create an almost subconscious sense of creepiness.
Naomi Watts: [starring in remakes] The success of El aro (2002) at the box-office paved the way for several more American remakes of Japanese horror films including La maldición (2004), Agua turbia (2005), Pulse - La puerta de los muertos (2006), and Una llamada perdida (2008).