Boris Akunin, author of the novel 'Statskiy sovetnik,' thought of Oleg Menshikov as of an ideal Fandorin when he was writing the novel.
The film is the third in the film series of Erast Petrovich Fandorin's Adventures, but is based on the seventh book about Fandorin by Boris Akunin.
In 2001 Nikita Mikhalkov planned to direct the film himself. He also wanted to cast Isabelle Adjani in one of the leading roles. However, the views of Boris Akunin (author of the novel the film is based on) and Mikhalkov on the film were too different and eventually Filipp Yankovskiy was chosen to direct the film. But rumor has it that Mikhalkov, who played one of the leading roles in the film, controlled what happened on the set more than Yankovsky did.
The old train filmed in the first stages of the movie, was delivered to Moscow from the Locomotive museum of the October railway (St. Petersburg).
During speech scoring, Vladimir Mashkov who played Kozyr was filming in Los Angeles. To keep the schedule, the company 'Neva-film' which was scoring the movie, transferred the movie to one of the Hollywood studios via satellite. Mashkov scored his role, and the next day the sound producer in St. Petersburg was working with his soundtrack. The soundtrack was coded with two passwords to avoid piracy.