Wim Wenders' original rough cut for this film was twenty hours long.
It took 14 years and $23 million for Wim Wenders to bring his vision to the screen, shooting in 15 different cities in seven different countries on four different continents.
Wenders pitched his story idea to Australian author Peter Carey, hoping that Carey would write the screenplay. It took him six hours to tell Carey the story.
When filming ended, Wenders confessed, his producers had to literally pull the plug on him for his own good because he wanted to take the film to a conclusion in the African Congo. There, the Pygmies' "dream music" would have brought his characters and themes full circle. As it is, he hit every continent in the film except Africa, South America, and Antarctica.
The money just ran out to shoot in China, so actress Solveig Dommartin and one camera person surreptitiously shot the Chinese scenes in the film (seen on VideoFax in Paris by Eugene) completely on their own.