Director Wayne Kramer's original cut was 140 minutes long, but despite having the right to final cut, this film's producer agreed to be involved in editing the film down to two hours when Harvey Weinstein allegedly threatened to release the film straight to DVD, and bypass theatrical altogether (Kramer had nothing to do with the re-editing).
Last film Shelley Malil (Munshi Jahangir) was on. On December 16, 2010 Malil, who had been found guilty by a jury of premeditated attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for stabbing his ex-girlfriend Kendra Beebe 23 times.
Wayne Kramer wanted Paul Walker to play the character "Chris Farrell" but Harvey Weinstein insisted that the part went to Sean Penn, which began a series of problematic occurrences involving the film.
The film originally featured a scene in which an Iranian woman is murdered by her brother in an honor killing. Following complaints that the plot-line was unrealistic and offensive, the killing was presented as an intended beating which got out of hand, removing the dialogue referring to "honor" and "family honor."
Removable and Deportable offenses are different in that someone is removable when they are not eligible to be in the United States. Deportable offenses are more numerous and basically amount to felonies with gangs, drugs, domestic violence, weapons, and sex offenses being a top priority for Immigration Enforcement. Being convicted of such offenses will automatically put a non-US citizen in Deportation proceedings with little hope of relief.