Wissenswertes

The project was set to roll in early 2008 in China, but the authorities blocked the shoot just a few weeks before production was set to begin. China's exit meant walking away from sets that had been built, at a cost of three million dollars. The Weinstein Company shifted the shoot to London and Thailand, where sets have been built re-creating Shanghai's old colonial architecture.

Prior to filming, Franka Potente's life was threatened by a stalker. Throughout the filming and entire production she was referred to by a pseudonym.

John Cusack said once he heard the filmmakers were interested in casting him, he aggressively lobbied for the part.

The brainchild of Mike Medavoy, who was born in Shanghai in 1941, and who developed the story through his Phoenix Pictures shingle. The project was subsequently bought by Harvey Weinstein, while still at Miramax. It took eight years to get it made.

When the Imperial Japanese Navy carrier Kaga is first mentioned (while Soames is on the phone with Astor), he looks at a photograph of the ship. The photo is a real one and shows the Kaga after it had been refitted in 1933-35. It shows the Kaga's distinctive down-turned funnel (built to minimise the funnel's smoke) set amidships on the side facing the camera. But the caption accompanying the photo says that it's a surveillance photograph taken in 1939, which is not true. It's an official Japanese photo taken in 1936 and forms part of both the Yamato and Kashiwa Museums collections.