ever happens again. Cast Production The film is based on a short story by Ray Bradbury that was first published in 1952 and had been adapted for TV in 1989 as an episode of Ray Bradbury Theatre. Breck Eisner was attached to direct at one stage. The film was originally going to be directed by Renny Harlin, star Pierce Brosnan in the main role, and be shot in Montreal, Canada. The budget was meant to be $55 million. Filming was to have begun in Montreal on 16 April 2001. Brosnan wanted a rewrite of the script. However the filmmakers did not have time to rewrite and finish the film by July 1, which is when Hollywood writers and actors were poised to go on strike. Matters were complicated when Canadian producer Nicolas Claremont died in April 2001. By November 2001 Harlin had been replaced by Peter Hyams. "I thought it was a really intriguing story," said Hyams. "It's a story about greed, and about the arrogance of having this technology and using it in this way. Still, I don't think it's a preachy movie. It's a thriller, but unlike the short story, this movie is also meant to scare. Hopefully, it gets pretty creepy." Brosnan left the project as well and was replaced by Edward Burns. After Franchise Pictures went bankrupt during post-production, the remaining backers provided only $30 million to work with, out of the $80 million originally allocated. Previsualization software was used. Filming Shooting took place in the Czech Republic in 2002. The unit was affected by the August 2002 floods. Kingsley said "I was allowed to give a very ironic comedic performance. I was able to make my director (Peter Hyams) stifle a huge amount of laughter behind the camera." Hyams' son John later said "it was one of the hardest experiences of his [father's] career. You know, it’s got to be a real sinking feeling going into something shooting all of it against green screen with all this trust that you’re relying on this whole element, this whole technology that ultimately you’re not going to be able to afford and you have to do it anyway." Peter Hyams said the effects were done "in a mom-and-pop fashion. That's the only way we could make this film for a reasonable amount of money. We had stuff done in Germany, Hong Kong, India. We've also taken a long