Winona Ryder introduced Christian Bale to his future wife Sibi Blazic on the set of this film. At the time she worked as Ryder's personal assistant.
At the end of the credits, the film is dedicated to two persons, one of whom is Polly Hannah Klaas, the 12-year-old girl who was kidnapped from her Petaluma, California, home in 1993 and later found murdered. Winona Ryder, much of whose youth was spent in Petaluma, joined in the highly publicized search effort and made several emotional appeals for the child's safe return.
The set designer patterned the interiors after the layout of Orchard House, Louisa May Alcott's family home in Concord, Massachusetts. This is the house she lived in while writing the book, and she imagined its events taking place there.