In July 2003, a truck containing costumes for the shoot burned down. Rather than halt production, the schedule was altered and the lost costumes were redone in a week.
120 cubic meters of furniture were brought over from Paris to Portugal to convincingly dress the Palacio de Correio as a French castle.
It took two and a half hours to apply Bruno Wolkowitch's "Bossu" makeup, and an hour to take it off.
Producer Michelle Podroznik got the idea of casting Bruno Wolkowitch in a swashbuckler film after seeing him in a ball scene in Méditerranée (2001). After meeting her, Wolkowitch suggested adapting "Le Bossu", being a fan of Paul Féval's novel since childhood and having seen all the prior versions, his favorite being Lagardère (1967).