'Saw' producer dead at 42

from cnn

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Film producer Gregg Hoffman, who developed an eight-minute film into the horror hit "Saw" and its gory successor "Saw II," died unexpectedly after complaining of pain. He was 42.

Hoffman died Sunday at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, where he had been admitted after developing neck pain, his business partners said. He died of natural causes, according to a news release from Lions Gate Entertainment, which distributed his recent films. An autopsy was planned.

Hoffman and his partners at Twisted Pictures financed the low-budget films "Saw" (2004) and "Saw II" (2005) and stood to reap millions of dollars.

The first film cost about $1 million to make, opened over Halloween weekend last year at No. 3 at the box office, and grossed more than $102 million in DVD and box office revenue.

The $4 million sequel, released just before Halloween this year, ranked No. 1 at the box office in its debut weekend with $31.7 million in receipts. It has made $86 million in six weeks, according to box office figures released Monday.

The movies center around a sadistic serial killer called Jigsaw who devises intricate games to get his kidnapped victims to kill each other.

"We've won the lottery," Hoffman, a former Walt Disney Co. executive, told the Los Angeles Times in November.

Hoffman began working for Disney in 1995, rising to become a senior vice president of production and earning a producer credit on the family comedy "George of the Jungle" (1997).

He joined Koules and Mark Burg at their management and production company, Evolution Entertainment, in 2003. Soon after, he saw the eight-minute clip about a serial killer called "Saw" and proposed making it into a full-length feature. The original story was by James Wan, who went on to direct the feature "Saw," and Leigh Whannell, who starred in it.

"He discovered this movie, brought it in and talked us into making it. He was the driving force behind it," said Oren Koules, one of his Twisted Pictures partners.

The "Saw" films' success led to multi-picture development deals with Lions Gate and Dimension Films. Hoffman was working on "Saw III" and "Crawlspace" when he died.

He is survived by his wife, Lucienne; two children; his mother; and a sister.

so he had a huge unexpected hit and windfall profit was about to come in for him and his partners and he died at age 42 ... of natural causes

dammit. now it's gonna be another twnety years before some actual good horror moies come along. fuck. r.i.p

oh wait.....he worked for disney...........yeh. don't think this was natural causes........

id say it was more of a thriller... not really a horror... meh..


anyway R.I.P.

saw III? come on. Didn't we learn anything from the friday the thirteenth movies? oh yeah, it was that you don't need to make quality films to get stupid people to see them. can't wait for Saw IV: the quest for more money.

http://www.jadeddreads.com/vsmovie.jpg

bravo. I was trying to think of a suitable villian for jigsaw to be matched up against. while dubya doesn't have the smarts to escape from the traps, he could probibly convince the american people that even though jigsaw has never actually killed anyone, that he's got some WMDs and he's going to use them.

But how did he die? He did not die of natural causes. There is some kind of PR cover up here, read between the lines!!! Nobody dies at 42 of natural causes.

hey the guy was a pain in the neck, what can I say?

Explosive prolapse,that the PR is trying to Cover up?

i think "the mouse" had something to do with it.and yeh, youre right. they really arent horror movies but saw2 looked like the only good flick to hit the theatres during th hallowen season.........

It was natural causes, so it's a private matter for the family as to what details are released even if he was known and loved by many. Gregg's passing was following a short and sudden stay in hospital where he received excellent care. There were no suspicious circumstances and until very recently he was seemingly in good health and enthusiastically working on several new projects (there are 10 more titles contracted to Lions Gate Films including Catacombs, infamously starring Alecia 'Pink' Moore). The loss of Gregg has naturally left everyone in shock, however news around the office is that the running projects will continue where possible - including SAWIII, Catacombs and Crawlspace (a Paramount co-pro). Once everyone has had a period to reflect and regroup their plans, details will be released via LGF.

For those looking for 'his website' and information on Evolution/TP, there isn't one and never has been. Evolution Entertainment is a division of Evolution Management, based in LA and who in turn distribute under the title Twisted Pictures, but they are contracted exclusively through LGF and so don't go in for self-publicity.

mG (worked with them a few times)

I loved the Saw movies. The most brilliant part was that they didn't try to recreate from the first one. The first one was slow, psychological and had a surprise ending. Then the second one was fast paced, gory, and still the surprise ending. So I think the third one might take on a unique twist of its own. And not to mention the sets were just incredible. Fuck I loved them! That is so sad. Why couldn't the creator of the OC die instead?

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Originally Posted by Scar

Why couldn't the creator of the OC die instead?

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because motherfuckers like that have a pact with Satan, which grants them a clause of mediocre longevity...

...fucking look at andrew lloyd webber... so long as that fucking toad has a show on broadway, Beelzubub can't take him away to predition where he surely belongs... arrrgggh!!! he'll inflict himself on us for several more generations to come!!! :newburn:

(I fucking hate those fucking people...)

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Originally Posted by Buster Friendly

because motherfuckers like that have a pact with Satan, which grants them a clause of mediocre longevity...

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LOL I want a pact with the devil, where do I sign up?

And why is everyone so hard on the devil anyways? I mean if you really deserve to burn in Hell it's not his fault, he's just delivering the punishment.

hey rich kids have all the problems, don't be hating on the OC

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Originally Posted by Morning Glory

hey rich kids have all the problems, don't be hating on the OC

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Indeed - it's a social commentary on how complex life is when you're torn between Daddy's billions and the cover of Sports Illustrated.

If you want people to hate, how about these:-

Phil Hay - responsible for Aeon Flux (so a malopropism)
The Amazing Ephrons - responsible for Bewitched The Movie
Simon Cowell - just... responsible.

mG

haha, that reminds me of when I met the wachowski brothers, for some reason. I was talking to some guy that worked on the movies, i'm not really sure who he was.. but I said, "yeah the first one was good, but the second one kinda sucked, man." and he was like "yeah, I know.. but don't tell them that."

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Originally Posted by Scar

And why is everyone so hard on the devil anyways?

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well that's just it Scar, you have to agree to be mediocre, lame, boring, fake, superfical...

he's the devil for a reason.

Did they find him in a house and was a piece from the back of his neck missing?



.....it's just a movie.... right...

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Originally Posted by Mindgames

Indeed - it's a social commentary on how complex life is when you're torn between Daddy's billions and the cover of Sports Illustrated.

If you want people to hate, how about these:-

Phil Hay - responsible for Aeon Flux (so a malopropism)
The Amazing Ephrons - responsible for Bewitched The Movie
Simon Cowell - just... responsible.

mG

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plus they finally got that chica from return of the living dead three a job. lol

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Originally Posted by Scar

LOL I want a pact with the devil, where do I sign up?

And why is everyone so hard on the devil anyways? I mean if you really deserve to burn in Hell it's not his fault, he's just delivering the punishment.

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well if you want to get technical, it's god that does it all not the devil. because if god didn't create hell, and didn't create evil, and didn't create satan, and subsequently didn't allow people to be influenced by satan and go to hell, then he wouldn't be the all powerful omnipotent God. So in a nut shell, God creates all the possible choices that you can make, and totally fucks you over if you don't make the one that he wants. Free Will really means that you get the choice whether or not to accept that you have no control over your fate.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Morning Glory

well if you want to get technical, it's god that does it all not the devil. because if god didn't create hell, and didn't create evil, and didn't create satan, and subsequently didn't allow people to be influenced by satan and go to hell, then he wouldn't be the all powerful omnipotent God. So in a nut shell, God creates all the possible choices that you can make, and totally fucks you over if you don't make the one that he wants. Free Will really means that you get the choice whether or not to accept that you have no control over your fate.

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Funny you mention that I believe it is somewhere in the old testament (i'll drop you passages later on today) where it alludes to God creating the devil and such a hell to prevent "something worse" So....that brings an interesting point of the something worse part...and it question.... the omnipotence of the deity ...hmmmm

my guess is that the 'devil' was created by an impotent god to bait and switch humans into realizing that said god was weak, and unnecessary.

and i'm speaking metaphysically here.

everybody knows all about the gnostic gods of light, and dark, two perfectly equally powerful beings, one good, one evil. it was supposedly the evil one who created the physical world, and therefore when the 'good' one destroys matter with a cleansing fire, we're all supposed to be thankful.

yay.

s'all boolsheet as far as i'm concerned.

the xians just stoled that shiite.

'something worse' in xian terms would be self governing human.

no no no, what I am talking about is from deleriumsrealm was my source for what I was talking about...

all this spawned from my innocent little comment :-) Really it was meant entirely in a teasing way.....

Besides....We all thought you had a deal with him already. LOL