The film is infamous for Steven Seagal's almost total lack of involvement in any of the fight scenes due to his leaving the film 18 days into a 30-day shoot. Alexander Gruszynski shot fights with stunt doubles and scenes that were to involve Seagal were shot with Tamara Davies instead.
In interviews, director Alexander Gruszynski has spoken candidly about Steven Seagal's behavior on the film and the circumstances surrounding it. The company financing the film, Andrew Stevens Productions, paid Seagal an upfront fee just to ensure his participation. A script was then quickly written, which would undergo many changes for various reasons. One of them was that Seagal decided he wanted to play the same character he had in The Foreigner (2003), which meant an almost complete rewrite. Seagal was also bullying and uncommunicative toward cast and crew members, and refused to film any fight scenes; the production company ultimately backed Seagal, forcing Gruszynski to use doubles. To compensate, Tamara Davies filmed a couple of fight scenes, which were ultimately cut because they made it clear how little Seagal was participating in the action. Seagal ended up leaving the film halfway through production, necessitating the use of blue screen to complete several crucial scenes, whose CGI was poor because the money had run out. Gruszynski has said the experience was enough to make him swear off directing feature films.
On the DVD extras, there is an interview of Steven Seagal taken in Thailand just before the film shot in LA. For this interview he insisted on being interviewed while sitting on a throne that had been used by the previous King of Thailand for 25 years. The interview had to take place in the Imperial Gardens of the US embassy in Bangkok. Seagal would not participate in photo shoots for the Black Dawn cover and publicity stills unless this interview was included on the DVD. The production company also insisted there be a picture of two people doing flying kicks on the front cover, something that never happens in the movie.
This film is the directorial debut of cinematographer Alexander Gruszynski. He has only directed a TV film and a few short movies since.