In December 1926, Agatha Christie mysteriously disappeared for eleven days, and when she turned up again, no one could ever get a reliable explanation for her disappearance. Even when she died in 1976, no viable explanation was uncovered.
British writer Kathleen Tynan was so intrigued by the Agatha Christie disappearance story, she tried to make a documentary about those eleven days. But when funding fell through, she wrote a screenplay about the incident instead, a fictional version of it.
Agatha Christie's estate sued to stop this film, but the lawsuit was nixed as the film was ruled a work of fiction, protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The film ran over budget and over schedule, and eventually, the project was taken out of Dustin Hoffman's control. There were lawsuits, and delays in post-production. Eventually, the director Michael Apted managed to calm the waters enough to convince Hoffman to complete the movie.
Dustin Hoffman was feeling depressed during much of the film shoot. He has since stated that he was ready to quit film acting at that time and return to the stage, but a meeting with Producer Stanley R. Jaffe and Writer and Director Robert Benton at his London hotel changed his mind, and resulted his in accepting the role in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).