Italy's official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 56th Academy Awards.
At the 35th international Cannes Film Festival, the film didn't have a poster ready, so Federico Fellini, on the spot, drew a poster for the film and sent it to Cannes.
The song "Rhinoceros," by Utah Saints on their album Two, contains a sample of Michael Stipe, the R.E.M. singer, detailing the scenario of this film.
The English language dubbing was supervised by director Mike Hodges, who was recommended to director Federico Fellini by Stanley Kubrick.
According to an excerpt from the book "I, Fellini," the renowned director was uncertain about casting Freddie Jones in the role of Orlando, mainly for the fact that he would be a British type within a Mediterranean setting. When he saw an ice-cream advertisement, carrying the brand name Orlando on the sign of a bus, Federico Fellini took it as a favorable omen and Jones got the part.