Trivia

Following Fidel Castro's death at the age of 90 in 2016, Andy Garcia expressed, "It is necessary for me to express the deep sorrow that I feel for all the Cuban people both inside and outside of Cuba that have suffered the atrocities and repression caused by Fidel Castro and his totalitarian regime. The promises of his so-called revolution of pluralism and democracy, were to continue to be a false promise and a betrayal of all basic human rights... I pray for what I have always prayed for: the restoration of our constitution and absolute freedom for the people of Cuba. The dream is very much alive. Let the spirit of Jose Marti, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. show us the way."

The film took 16 years to get made, being a passion project for Andy Garcia. In the early stages, Garcia was set to play Ricardo, however when filming commenced, he was old enough to play Fico.

The Lost City (2005) was shot in 35 days. It was filmed in various locations in the Dominican Republic due to similarity of landscape, vegetation and architecture. The palace scenes were filmed at the Dominican National Palace and the tobacco estate is that of Arturo Fuente.

Andy Garcia's first draft of the script was 306 pages. It was later trimmed to 120 pages. Andy Garcia had the original draft put into a hardcover form which he kept.

The Lost City (2005) was based on the real-life story of Armando Valladares (Armando Valladares Perez [born May 30, 1937]), a political prisoner in Castro's Cuba for 22 years. He is a Cuban-American poet, diplomat and former political prisoner for his involvement in the Cuban dissident movement. Valladares is now the US ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

In 1960, he was arrested by the Cuban government for opposing Fidel Castro, after having initially supported him. As a result, Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience. Following his release in 1982, he wrote a book detailing his imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Cuban government.