The Sixth Sense - Production

Production

According to the book DisneyWar, Disney's David Vogel read Shyamalan's speculative script and instantly loved it. Without obtaining approval from his boss, Vogel bought the rights to the script, despite the high price of US$2 million and the stipulation that Shyamalan could direct the film. Disney later dismissed Vogel as President of Walt Disney Pictures, and Vogel left the company. Disney, apparently in a show of little confidence in the film, sold the production rights to Spyglass Entertainment, and kept only a 12.5% distribution fee for itself.

In the commentary from the film Superbad, Michael Cera said that his first film audition was for the role of Cole Sear.

Donnie Wahlberg lost 43 pounds to achieve his character's emaciated form.

The color red is intentionally absent from most of the film, but is used prominently in a few isolated shots for "anything in the real world that has been tainted by the other world" and "to connote really explosively emotional moments and situations". Examples include the door of the church where Cole seeks sanctuary; the color of the balloon, carpet, and Cole's sweater at the birthday party; the tent in which he first encounters Kyra; the volume numbers on Crowe's tape recorder; the doorknob on the locked basement door where Malcolm's office is located; The shirt that Anna wears at the restaurant; Kyra's mother's dress at the wake; and the shawl wrapped around the sleeping Anna when Malcolm realizes he is a ghost.

All of the clothes Malcolm wears during the film are items he wore or touched the evening before his death, which included his overcoat, his blue rowing sweatshirt and the different layers of his suit. Though the filmmakers were careful about clues of Malcolm's true state, the camera zooms slowly towards his face when Cole says "I see dead people". In a special feature the filmmakers mention they initially feared this would be a dead giveaway, but decided to leave it in.