The various filmmakers were asked to adhere to three guidelines: They had only twenty-four hours to shoot, a week to edit, and needed to give the sense of a particular neighborhood.
This movie was first shown at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2008, and was two segments longer. One of the segments was black-and-white, directed by Scarlett Johansson (another directorial debut), and starred Kevin Bacon. The other was made by Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, and featured Carla Gugino, Goran Visnjic, and Nicholas Purcell. This movie was re-edited later to cut the two segments.
Two short films, Apocrypha (2009) directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, and These Vagabond Shoes (2009) directed by Scarlett Johansson were shot for inclusion in this movie, but were left out of the finished cut. Both shorts are available as bonus extras in the DVD.
The segment "Upper East Side" was to have been directed by Anthony Minghella, who died shortly before its filming. Minghella asked Shekhar Kapur to replace him in their last conversation. After Minghella's death, Kapur wrote in his blog, "I will direct the film now, with Anthony in my heart and in presence of his soul." This movie is dedicated to Minghella at the beginning of the closing credits.
Natalie Portman (who directed and appeared in segments of this movie) also starred in one of the segments of this anthology's predecessor, Paris, Je T'aime (2006). However, her segment was cut before the theatrical release.