Although Gilliam raised $29.5 million in funding for the filming and secured Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt to join, Universal Pictures has been reluctant to start shooting because "Future Water World" has been seriously overrun. In order to get the approval of the producer as soon as possible, Gilliam urged Willis to reduce the pay. Gilliam won the final editing rights for the film because of a successful collaboration with Universal Pictures.
At the beginning of the film’s preparation, Gilliam wanted to ask Nick Knott and Jeff Bridges to play James and Jeffrey Goines, respectively. However, they were opposed by Universal Pictures. Bruce Willis, whom he met during the horns, believed that the latter possessed Cole's strong, dangerous and fragile qualities. When looking for a candidate to play Kathryn Railly, Gilliam believed that Madeleine Stowe, who had been in a relationship before, was an irreplaceable and excellent candidate. He said: "She has an extraordinary beauty and outstanding excellence. The wisdom of the two, the better integration of the two is the element necessary for the film.” Gilliam originally thought that Brad Pitt was not suitable for the role of Jeffrey Goines, but the casting director eventually persuaded him. The pay for Pitt's appearance in the film was negligible, because he had just emerged at the time. When the film was released, "Interview with the Vampire", "The Years of Love" and "The Seven Deadly Sins" came out one after another. The popularity of this film is undoubtedly the icing on the cake and the box office. It is worth mentioning that before the filming started, Pete specially went to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia to visit and study mental patients in preparation for the role.
The main scenes in the film were filmed in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Because it was the turn of winter and spring, the weather conditions were very bad, and the futuristic mechanical props used in the filming also frequently malfunctioned, and the non-linear narrative inevitably caused continuity errors. , Some scenes must be retaken. Despite the difficulties, Gilliam still tried his best to stay within the budget, and the entire filming cycle was only delayed by one week. Art director Jeffrey Beecroft recalled: “The filming was very difficult because we did not have sufficient funds and time. Terry was a perfectionist, but he could only compromise with a limited budget because of The fiasco of "The Adventures" has always left him with lingering fears."
