The film was originally being developed by Yari's Stratus Film. When Stratus executive, Mark Gill, left for Warner Independent, he brought this project with him.
Warner Independents and Yari Groups brought in a Chinese production company to help finance the film. The Chinese partner was granted approvals over the script and the finished film. It was concerned about the film's depiction of the uprising during the Chinese Revolution as well as the cholera's victims and asks for these contents to be reduced, something Edward Norton and John Curran disagreed upon. In the end, about 38 seconds of footage were removed.
Edward Norton injured his back during filming, breaking three vertebrae after his horse threw him onto some rocks. He has said in interviews that he did not seek proper medical treatment until he had finished filming and had returned to Hong Kong.