party claims that the song "Love Rollercoaster" contains a real murder scream; meanwhile, Sasha screams for her life on air during her radio broadcast. Parker finds the remains of his dog in the microwave, resembling the "Old Lady dries wet dog in microwave" legend. The killer attempts to re-enact the "kidney heist" on Natalie. Referenced A caller to Sasha's radio show states that she replaced her roommate's birth control pills with baby aspirin. A caller to Sasha's radio show asks about having her stomach pumped after performing oral sex and ingesting semen. A couple suffering from penis captivus call in to Sasha's radio show. Professor Wexler discusses the babysitter and the man upstairs legend during his lecture, and Brenda claims it happened in her hometown. Parker suggests placing spider eggs in Bubble Yum as the killer's next move. Production Development and writing The concept for the film was developed by Silvio Horta, a recent film school graduate from New York University who was working at the perfume counter in a Nordstrom. Horta pitched the idea in late-1997 to Gina Mathews, a producer who was leading writers' workshops at the time. Mathews liked the story, and the two began further developing the concept before Horta drafted a screenplay. Producer Neal H. Moritz subsequently became involved, and agreed to co-produce with Mathews and Michael McDonnell. Horta and Mathews pitched the screenplay to numerous film studios, but none expressed interest in funding the project. In a last-ditch effort at getting the film made, Horta brought the screenplay to Phoenix Pictures, a then-new company who had only produced a small number of films. Mike Medavoy, an executive at Phoenix, was impressed by the concept, but Horta recalled that his screenplay "needed to be better," and re-writes began to take place in the late-fall of 1997. In seeking a director, executive producer Brad Luff scouted potential filmmakers from Australia, and was impressed by then-26-year-old Jamie Blanks's short horror film, Silent Number, which he had made as his thesis film while attending film school in Melbourne. Blanks had initially wanted to direct producer Moritz's I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), and went so far as directing a mock-trailer for the project, but Jim Gillespie had already been hired to direct it. Instead, Blanks was offered the screenplay to Urban Legend, and signed on as director in February 1998. Pre-production Jared Leto was cast in