In the scene in which Jack Marcus destroys his living room, the music in the background is David Bowie's "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" from his album The Next Day. Clive Owen insisted on using this on the soundtrack rather than the classical music that director Fred Schepisi preferred.
In a 2014 interview with Collider, Fred Schepisi explained how he came to cast the two leads: "Clive Owen loves words. Clive is classically trained. He's come from a fairly working class background or area originally. He fell into acting and found out what he loved about it. He loved words. And then, he went to become classically trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. I've seen him in Croupier (1998) and The Boys Are Back (2009) and films where it requires a different side of his acting. When he was doing Gosford Park (2001), I was doing Last Orders (2001) in England... We talked a little bit. He just seemed like the right person for this. When he read the script, he jumped on it immediately.
With Juliette Binoche, I went to her quite early on. I had discussions with her many years before on doing Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Steve Martin's play. She doesn't remember, but I do. I was aware that she did a little bit of painting. I was not aware the extent of her talent, and wow, what a fantastic thing because you don't have to fake it. You can just go for it. And then, they met and you could see they both respected one another and had wanted to work together. When they met, it was nice to find out that they had a rapport and a similar sense of humor. I thought half of my work is done. This is great."