Steven Soderbergh attached the following list of rules to the screenplay to his low budget ($2 M) film with a huge list of stars:
- 1. All sets are practical locations.
- 2. You will drive yourself to the set. If you are unable to drive yourself, a driver will pick you up, but you will probably become the subject of ridicule. Either way, you must arrive alone.
- 3. There will be no craft service, so you should arrive on set "having had". Meals will vary in quality.
- 4. You will pick, provide, and maintain your own wardrobe.
- 5. You will create and maintain your own hair and make-up.
- 6. There will be no trailers. The company will attempt to provide holding areas near a given location, but don't count on it. If you need to be alone a lot, you're pretty much screwed.
- 7. Improvisation will be encouraged.
- 8. You will be interviewed about your character. This material may end up in the film.
- 9. You will be interviewed about the other characters. This material may end up in the finished film.
- 10. You will have fun whether you want to or not. If any of these guidelines are problematic for you, stop reading now and send this screenplay back where it came from.
According to David Duchovny, he was supposed to get a real erection in the scene where Mary McCormack's character gives him a massage. But he was unable to do so on command so a plastic dildo was used.
After a pitch meeting with some studio execs, Blair Underwood's character complains, "We brought them a china cup and they told us to go back and make a beer mug." This is almost a direct quote from director David Fincher; he was describing his experience making Alien³ (1992) to Premiere Magazine.
The character 'Harvey' is clearly based on Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Played by Jeff Garlin, he's overweight and drinks diet coke, just like Weinstein in real life. Another character in the movie is a film producer, who gets sexual arousal through massages, which might have been a reference to Weinstein, too.
Steven Soderbergh shot mostly hand-held with digital camcorders, which was very unusual at that time for a feature using Hollywood stars. Soderbergh was inspired by the Dogma 95 movement. Filming took only 18 days.
Steven Soderbergh: The crew member whose face is covered by the black square. He was unable to find another director to play the part and so stepped in himself, reluctantly, and shows this by covering his face in post production with a black square.