Michael Fassbender agreed to star in this as part of a two-picture deal. The next film would not be a sequel; instead the studio would fund his Assassin's Creed (2016) project.
The film's main Counselor character remains nameless, as do a few other characters with speaking parts: The Blonde, The Diamond Dealer, The Priest, The Wireman, etc. And no one in the film goes by a complete first & last name.
On August 20, 2012, Ridley Scott halted production of the film due to his brother Tony Scott's death. He canceled that week's shoot in order to travel to Los Angeles to be with his brother's family. Scott returned to London to resume production on September 3, 2012.
Except for some second unit footage, The Counselor - Il procuratore (2013) was completely shot in Europe.
While The Counselor - Il procuratore (2013) didn't meet in the US the commercial expectations of the studio - which tried to market it as an all-star action-drama blockbuster - the general perception, that the movie was a commercial failure, is wrong. "The Counselor" opened in nearly all major markets in the Top Five, especially doing well in Europe, where it even opened at No.1 in Italy and the Netherlands. The budget of $25 mill. was very modest and the global theatrical box-office total reached a respectable $71,009,334, not including the revenue from DVD, BluRay, TV rights and streaming services. Therefore, it is very likely that "The Counselor" reached profitability and has to be regarded as a small commercial success.