This is Brian Helgeland's version of Revancha (1999). Helgeland was replaced by Paul Abascal as director after Helgeland was fired from the original.
Deborah Kara Unger broke two ribs in the scene where Mel Gibson beats her. She was stated that she was having fun flying around and getting slammed into things and did one too many.
During the DVD documentaries and commentaries included in this version of Payback, director Brian Helgeland states that he can now appreciate the theatrical, audience-friendly cut created from his movie. At the time he wrote and directed Payback, his commentary reveals that with the 1970's, gritty, crime-drama tableau, the unhappy ending was in keeping with the outcomes of so many of the popular films of that period.
Bronson's voice was originally provided by Angie Dickinson, who starred in A quemarropa (1967), of which this film is a remake. But her voice was replaced with Sally Kellerman's for the DVD release.
Music editor Scott Stambler was involved in the theatrical cut, and was brought in to try and reedit 'Chris Boardman''s music from that version of the film into the Director's cut. When it was decided by director Brian Helgeland that music simply didn't match the tone of his film, he asked Stambler to write a new original score for his film which was recorded in late Feburary 2006.