The recce

From August 2001, Minghella spent almost a year on a recce of the novel's traditional 1860s setting in North Carolina. Period drama necessitates meticulously recreating both time and place. In this tale, landscape so influences the feelings and actions of the characters, it is a primary force in the narrative. However, Minghella was constantly frustrated by the state's lack of period buildings, which would be expensive to recreate. There was also a significant absence of the extensive forestry required for the story's setting. Nor could North Carolina be guaranteed to deliver the winter snowstorms that play such an ominous and essential role in the narrative's climax.

Minghella considered relocating production to Canada but there too extensive logging and an absence of the density and diversity of trees so characteristic of the Appalachians, coupled with prohibitive building costs dictated that a disappointed Minghella must look elsewhere for an authentic setting.

Executive Line Producer, Iain Smith, recommended relocating to the Carpathian mountains of Romania's remote Transylvania. There they were amazed and delighted to discover extensive vistas untouched by modern industrialisation or deforestation, Romania's indigent farmers still scratch farming an unfenced, unspoiled land. Here was a virginal landscape reminiscent of the Southern Appalachians in the 1860s. Cameras could pan 360 degrees without fear of encountering any anachronistic sights or sounds. Romania also promised both the necessary summer heat and winter snows. On offer too, for the film's dramatic battle sequence, were a thousand enthusiastic Romanian soldiers, all comparatively younger and slimmer than their modern US counterparts and so more closely reminiscent of 19th century American troops. And they came with the attractive price tag of just $300,000 for eleven weeks' hire.

By February 2002, climate and production budget determined that the movie should be filmed largely in Romania.