Stories from the set

Johnny Depp's character reads Charles Torbett's novel "Berlin Vendetta" on the train. No such book exists; a novel with a similar title was written by Sylvia Wheatley.

Charlize Theron was originally supposed to play the role of Elise.

Frank was originally to be played by Tom Cruise, but he was replaced by Sam Worthington. In the end, due to "creative differences," Sam left the project, and the role was given to Johnny Depp.

The boat scenes along the Venetian canals were filmed over seven nights. To shoot this part of the film, Jolie even learned to operate several types of boats.

All of Jolie's clothing was hand-sewn and created specifically for her — with the exception of one vintage gray dress by Charles James (1950s).

After the success of the 2006 film "The Lives of Others," director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck was entrusted with deciding many matters regarding casting and script details while working on this picture. However, as soon as filming began, all control of the process passed into the hands of the movie stars involved in the film, and in the end, they ended up deciding practically everything. When the director was asked why he decided to see the filming through to the end, he replied that he could not turn down filming a movie with the two most beautiful actors in the world and in the most beautiful places on the planet.