Director Giovanni Veronesi stated in an interview that David Bowie answered to his proposal to take part to the movie in 48 hours, telling him: "you are crazy proposing me this movie, but I'm crazier because I'm accepting". Bowie's only condition was to have an accommodation without barking dogs within a radius of 3 kilometers, so they had to do a sort of raid around the countryside and same Veronesi adopted some of the dogs they picked up.
The role of Johnny Lowen had been initially planned for Marcello Mastroianni, who unfortunately died in 1996.
Italian censorship visa # 93137 delivered on 15-12-1998.
Diego Abatantuono was initially considered for the cast.
Leonardo Pieraccioni doesn't actually speak English. In the Italian version of the movie he gives his lines in Italian while everyone else speaks English with an Italian dub. For the International version he filmed alternative takes where he speaks English and was dubbed by an uncredited voice actor.