The screenwriter spent one year writing the first draft of the script. During the process, he called the Rwandan embassy in DC. The woman who picked up the phone was a survivor who stayed at the Milles Collines Hotel.
Paul Rusesabagina and Tatiana Rusesabagina returned to Rwanda with director Terry George for research. Many people came to welcome them at the airport.
It was later revealed by one of the survivors of the hotel, Pasa Mwenenganucye, that Paul Rusesabagina was not as heroic as he was depicted to be. The people who sought shelter at his hotel were made to pay for their stay, with priorities given to the wealthier people. The backlash was so bad that Rusesabagina was pressured into canceling an appearance at a Canadian festival by members of Toronto's Rwandan community, who accused him of being "genocide revisionist and denier". The head of the UN's peacekeeping force in Rwanda at the time, Canadian Roméo Dallaire addressed the controversy by simply calling the movie "okay". Despite all the allegations, Rusesabagina has stood by the movie and denied all claims of any wrongdoing on his part.
Nick Nolte's character (Col. Oliver) is modeled in part on Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire, the Canadian commanding officer of the UN Peacekeeping mission in that country who attempted to interfere with the Rwandan Genocide despite his superiors' indifference to the atrocity. Dallaire was also the subject of Sundance audience award documentary Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire (2004), and witnessed such horrible acts in Rwanda that he later suffered severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Other than Oliver, there was another fictionalized character: Jack Daglish, who is based off of the Polish photojournalist Stefan Stec, who recorded the Gikondo massacre.
This film was originally given an R rating (Restricted: no one under 17 without a parent or guardian) by the MPAA. Upon appeal by the producers, the film was rerated PG-13 - one of very few films that has ever been rerated without additional editing.