Before filming started, Sir Anthony Hopkins scoured the bookshops of London's Charing Cross Road, trying to find a copy of the novel upon which this movie was based. He had no luck, went to catch a train home, and found a copy lying on a bench at the station. Years later, Hopkins met author George Feifer, who told him that he'd lent his own copy to a friend, who then lost it. Hopkins produced the one he'd found, and asked if it was Feifer's. It was.
The production of this movie was moved to Austria after filming in Yugoslavia was banned.
The scene featuring Red Square and The Kremlin was a matte painting backdrop, as the production did not go to Moscow, Russia for filming.
While visiting Moscow, Russia doing research for this movie, director Robert Ellis Miller and screenwriters Alan Scott and Chris Bryant were not allowed to go to certain places, and the footage they had shot was confiscated by the Russian authorities.
This movie was released three years after its source novel, written by George Feifer, was published.