The title of the film is based on a four-hundred-year-old form of Japanese puppet theater, a style of storytelling that uses four-foot-tall puppets with highly detailed heads, each operated by several puppeteers who blend into the background wearing black robes and hoods.
When The Drifter (Josh Hartnett) leaps onto the prison roof and attacks a guard, The Narrator says "Happy birthday, fucker." This line is quoted from the song "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies" by the band Faith No More. Mike Patton (The Narrator) is the lead singer of Faith No More.
This is the first movie produced by renowned Production Designer Alex McDowell, RDI. He originally met with Guy Moshe and Producer Nava Levin in 2007 to consult with them on this movie. Moshe's project was such an interesting and provocative blend of genres and techniques that McDowell got hooked and helped them to set up an innovative approach to pre-production that integrated pre-visualization, storytelling, and design into a new fluid and low budget workspace for the creative team.
The characters The Bartender (Woody Harrelson) and Alexandra (Demi Moore) share matching tattoos on their necks, The Bartender's right ear and Alexandra's left ear. Alexandra wears Yin, the dark side, night. While The Bartender wears Yang, the white side, light.
Writer and Director Guy Moshe originally sold his script for this movie to a production company. When it became clear that the screenplay would not be turned into a film, he bought it back.