Robert De Niro personally had James Franco cast, after viewing his performance in James Dean (2001).
Director Michael Caton-Jones was unhappy with the final result, and said that working on this film for three years was the worst and most depressing period of his career.
One of two films in 2002 in which Robert De Niro appeared with his daughter Drena De Niro. The other is Showtime (2002). And David O. Russell"s Joy.
In June 2001, Michael Caton-Jones and his assistant Mitchel Stanley were ordered to move to Los Angeles to finish the film, thus missing the 9/11 terrorist attacks that could have also hit the editing facility in Tribeca.
In his autobiography "Dream Repairman", editor Jim Clark wrote that he walked out of the post-production in mid-2001 with the film shown in Cannes incomplete with missing insert footage. Clark said that "My 70th birthday was coming up on May 24, and I wanted to be home for that. Also, I was tired of sitting in small airless rooms in New York City waiting for something to happen on a film that seemed mired in inaction."