9 Things You Never Knew About 'Orphan' on its 10th Anniversary
"Orphan" turns ten years old this month, and it still maintains a strong cult following. Not since "The Exorcist" has a horror movie managed to make us so terrified of a preteen girl. Celebrate this horror movie milestone by learning more about the making of "Orphan" and how the story changed from page to screen.
1. The film drew outrage from adoption and foster groups, forcing WB to remove a line in the trailer that said, "It must be difficult to love an adopted child as much as your own." The line remained in the actual film, however.
2. The filmmakers were so impressed by Isabelle Fuhrman's audition that they cast her despite Fuhrman not resembling the fair-skinned, blond-haired girl described in the script.
3. Director Jaume Collet-Serra made a point of filming the scene where Esther walks in on her adoptive parents having sex in as few takes as possible, so as not to make Fuhrman swear any more than necessary.
4. The movie poster is designed to be psychologically off-putting. Rather than featuring an ordinary photo of Fuhrman's face, it features half of her face mirrored to form an impossibly symmetrical full face.
5. Actress Aryana Engineer, who plays the deaf Max, is actually mostly deaf and normally wears cochlear implants.
6. Actress Vera Farmiga is an accomplished pianist and was reportedly very angry at Collet-Serra for editing down the scene where Kate is composing music, as she felt her hard work was wasted.
7. There are several major plot differences between early drafts of the screenplay and the final version of the film. For example, originally Esther was supposed to have succeeded in killing Daniel in the hospital.
8. Earlier versions of the script also included much more background information for Esther, revealing that she was molested by her biological father from an early age and was sent to the orphanage after murdering him and his lover.
9. The film also has a deleted subplot where Esther frames a homeless man for the murder of Sister Abigail. Portions of this material are included as bonus features on the DVD.