The Rift was initially developed by Dejan Zecevic and Dimitrije Vojnov, with Zecevic eyeing to direct under the working title Fallen Angel. Vojnov wrote two treatments based on Zecevic's initial idea, one set in Serbia and the other one set in Mexico. Zecevic eventually went on and wrote the script with Milan Konjevic and Barry Keating introducing new elements.
Several director of horror movies had cameos, most prominently Mick Garris who plays Martin, Liz's boss. Other cameos are: Jonathan English, who plays the UK Prime Minister at the press conference at the end; next to him, as his bodyguard is Milan Todorovic; in the apocalypse footage there is Olivier Beguin as the guy pointing out at the war ships; Milan Konjevic is the doctor in the first shot of the movie; Julian Richards is the voice of "Overlord" as well as the voice of street prophet screaming "This is the apocalypse!".