Principal photography began August 2012 in Athens, Crete, Istanbul, and London's Ealing Studios. Identifiable locations include the Küçük Hasan mosque on Chania harbour, a nearby café and the Grand Arsenal in Plateia Katehaki, the ruins of Knossos near Iraklion, and the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul
The month of January is named after Janus, the Roman god of transitions, beginnings, gates, doors, doorways, passages and endings, and as such is usually portrayed with two faces, one looking to the future and the other to the past.
In the beginning Rydal recounts the legend of Aegeus on the steps of the Acropolis and says that it was there that Aegeus jumped to his death after his son, Theseus returned from Crete and forgot to change the black sails to white to denote his success. This is untrue; you would not be able to see the Aegean from the Acropolis, anyway. According to the legend Aegeus was waiting for the ships to arrive at Cape Sounion and when he saw the black sails he plunged into the sea (which is called the Aegean Sea after him). It is unlikely that a tour guide would not know how to recount the legend properly.
Before entering the ruins, it is supposedly dark, and rainy. The shadows on the ground however tell another story. The sharp shadows suggests the scene is in broad daylight, and is just darkened to suggest the sudden thunderstorm.
U.S. passports in that era had slightly larger dimensions and light green covers. The dark blue shown (and still standard issue today) wasn't introduced until around 1980.