The production was originally conceived as an English-language film with a Hollywood star in the lead to be shot on locations in Poland. Later, tax cuts enabled the film to be produced on the original locations in Paris, France, and in the French language with a French cast.
This film is based on Robert Harris' book, "An Officer and a Spy", released in 2013. This is the third collaboration between Harris and Polanski, after The Ghost (2010) and "Pompeii", which was cancelled because of the 2007 writers' strike.
In an interview with novelist Pascal Bruckner, conducted as part of the release promotion, Polanski suggested that he could relate easily to the Dreyfus affair through his personal experiences as a victim of a flawed justice system: "Most of the people who harass me do not know me and know nothing about the case. (...) I must admit that I am familiar with many of the workings of the apparatus of persecution shown in the film, and that has clearly inspired me." These comments were criticized in the media, but things got worse during the French release, when Polanski's comments pushed the former actress Valentine Monnier to publicly accuse the director of beating and raping her in 1975. This, combined with a new wave of #MeToo reckoning in French cinema, derailed the planned promotion, with Jean Dujardin having to cancel a primetime interview and Louis Garrel taping a talk show that ended up unaired. Polanski denied the new accusations.
Based on the same historical events as depicted in Dreyfus (1930), Dreyfus (1931), The Life of Emile Zola (1937), I Accuse! (1958) and Prisoner of Honor (1991).
Zola's 1898 article, "J'Accuse", is widely marked in France as the most prominent manifestation of the new power of the intellectuals (writers, artists, academicians) in shaping public opinion, the media and the state.
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