This was the first film in motion picture history that was legally available on the Internet while the film was still in theaters. This event was highlighted by the American Film Institute in their AFI Awards 2006 "Moments of Significance".
Director and producer Brad Silberling gave his two leading actors freedom to improvise during shooting. Lots of scenes in the movie were improvised on the spot. The dance scene by Morgan Freeman at the car wash is a good example. The singing scene in the car by Paz Vega and Freeman is another example of total improvisation.
The short documentary about the making of this movie revealed that actress Paz Vega doesn't act like she doesn't speak English very well. Before shooting this picture her English skills were even worse than those portrayed in the movie. Sometimes she had to resort to phonetically copying the English words from the script.
At a press appearance before a screening at The Paramount Thearer in Charlottesville, Virginia, to WMRA radio's Terry Ward, Morgan Freeman said that this film fit right in with his own personal hope to shed his image as someone usually so heavy with gravitas.
Morgan Freeman's character is referred to as having starred in a film with Ashley Judd. Freeman starred with Judd in Kiss the Girls (1997) and High Crimes (2002).