Shot entirely within the confines of the eponymous hotel, and the street outside it. This proved slightly problematic with police raids, shoot-outs, and a suicide taking place during filming. The hotel was also infested with rats.
Mel Gibson was so ashamed of the film that he fought to prevent it from being released to theaters in the U.S.
The book that Eloise carries around early in the movie is "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez. It is a 1967 magical realist novel by Colombian author Márquez that tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founded the fictitious town of Macondo. The novel is often cited as one of the supreme achievements in world literature.
Tim Roth was the original choice for Tom Tom, but couldn't commit, due to scheduling conflicts. He plays the much smaller role of Izzy instead.
U2: The film's story was conceived by, and the film produced by, Bono, the lead singer of U2 (U2 has contributed songs to all of Wim Wenders' films since Until the End of the World (1991). The band briefly appears in the hotel's lobby. The hotel is an actual hotel in Los Angeles, and Bono was inspired to come up with the idea for the film after the group shot the video for the song "Where the Streets Have No Name" there in 1987. In the video, the band gave a live performance on the roof from where Tom-Tom jumps.