October 1991: David Cronenberg is mixing his feature Naked Lunch. He is approached by record and film magnate David Geffen to direct M. Butterfly, an adaptation of the Tony Award-winning Broadway play written by David H. Hwang and produced for the stage by Geffen and Stuart Ostrow.

The play is based on the true story of Rene Gallimard, a French diplomat who falls passionately in love with Song Liling, a diva of the Peking Opera. Gallimard is later charged with passing documents to the Chinese government through Liling, is arrested, and discovers in court that his lover is a man.

Naked Lunch had been a long haul. Cronenberg, not wanting to wait the usual two years between writing and directing an original screenplay, is interested. Though a script exists, changes are required to adapt it to Cronenberg’s distinct style and vision.

Hwang flies to Toronto from New York and spends a couple of weeks in discussion with Cronenberg. Their dialogue focuses less on the politics of the play and more on an intimate portrayal of the two lovers.

December 1991: Hwang completes a new draft of the screenplay. Cronenberg calls Geffen to say he is pleased with the script and ready to go. Gabriella Martinelli, who has worked with Cronenberg since Dead Ringers and co-produced Naked Lunch, is to produce the film.

Martinelli and production manager Marilyn Stonehouse prepare a budget of us$20 million, with primary locations in China, Paris and a Toronto studio. Geffen and the distributor, Warner Bros., feel the budget is too high for this type of film.

To cut costs, the main Paris locations are switched to Budapest, including the Paris Opera House, which is replaced with the comparable Budapest Opera House. Geffen and Warner Bros. accept a revised budget of us$18 million and preproduction begins.

Cronenberg and Martinelli form an independent Canadian production company, M. Butterfly Productions, through which the film will be produced. Unlike some studios which like to run interference, Geffen and Warner Bros. promise, and maintain, a hands-off approach.

From the onset of the project, Jeremy Irons (Dead Ringers, Reversal of Fortune) has been considered the perfect Gallimard. He accepts the role due to the challenge that it offers and for the opportunity of working again with Cronenberg.

February 1992: Casting agent Deirdre Bowen is sent on a scouting mission through the u.s., Hawaii, Europe and the Far East to find the perfect Song Liling. She spends almost four months searching exotic locales for a femininely beautiful ‘unknown’ Asian actor. Although she finds many men who look more like women than men, there are none strong enough to handle the many subtleties in the film, especially in the last quarter where it is necessary to be extremely convincing as a man. It is clear the role is too demanding for a non-actor.

Martinelli, in discussion with Jeremy Thomas (producer: The Last Emperor, Naked Lunch), receives advice about shooting in Communist China. Because of the social and political content of the film, Martinelli is extremely cautious about approaching the Chinese government. Thomas offers help in introducing her to the appropriate Chinese authorities. He arranges to send his line producer on The Last Emperor, Mario Cotone, to meet her in Beijing, China.

March 1992: Martinelli flies to China to meet with Cotone and is introduced to the Italian representative of the China Film Coproduction Office in Beijing. As it is this European division that dealt with The Last Emperor, negotiations with the bilingual Chinese are conducted in Italian. Discussions are promising, yet cautious. For protection, Martinelli contacts Salon Films to scout alternate locations in Macao. Throughout, Cotone is instrumental in facilitating a working relationship with the Chinese.

Returning from China, Martinelli visits John Kemeny in his Toronto office for advice about shooting in Hungary. Kemeny advises her of his production company in Budapest, Transatlantic Films, and immediately calls his daughter Judy, who is in Budapest working at Transatlantic. Arrangements are made for her to liaise with the production. Ironically, Judy has worked as a sound editor on previous Cronenberg films.

April 1992: Cronenberg and Martinelli meet with Jamie Guan and Michele Ehlers, who will choreograph the Peking Opera sequences and act as translators in China. Both had worked with the u.s. stage productions of M. Butterfly.

Actor John Lone (The Last Emperor) is approached to play Liling. He is very reticent to accept the part at first, but agrees to meet with Cronenberg in Toronto.

May 1992: Cronenberg, Martinelli, Guan, Ehlers, designer Carol Spier, art director James McAteer and set decorator Elinor Galbraith travel to China for a location scout.

The filming parameters are set with the Chinese. It is agreed that only exteriors and portions of scenes which contain no physical engagement between the two male leads will be shot in China. This methodology would later prove to be challenging for dop Peter Suschitzky and Spier and her art department as they try to match interior and exterior locations for partial scenes shot in China.

Filming is to take place primarily in the streets of Beijing, the Summer Palace and at the Great Wall.

Because Hwang has never been to China, the streets and apartments he wrote about are not consistent with the geography and architecture that exists. Spier rethinks her production design to be consistent with the period and existing locations.

After China, the core group travels to Budapest for further location scouting.

June 1992: Cronenberg and Martinelli introduce Lone to Irons at dinner in London, Eng. After meeting, Lone signs to play Liling. He spends two months preparing for the role by working with Italian hairstylist Aldo Signoretti, French makeup artist Suzanne Benoit and costume designer Denise Cronenberg to arrive at the right look.

He gets massaged, manicured, mud-packed – the works – an immersion into the art of femininity. Although he takes movement classes, he is already knowledgeable about the art and arias of classic Chinese theatre. As an orphan in China he was sent to study at the Peking Opera and there spent many years in training.

July 1992: Preproduction is in full force at Cinespace Studios in Toronto, at Beijing studios and in Budapest, with locations still ‘on hold’ in Macao.

A target of opportunity is set for a second unit shoot in Paris, if the budget holds out, after the scheduled 78-day shoot.

August 1992: Fifty of the Cronenberg acfc crew travel to Beijing for a three-week shoot. Top-quality grip and electric equipment is flown in from Hong Kong. In keeping with communist policy, M. Butterfly Productions pays the government directly for all services and locations.

The production runs smoothly. A scene which takes place at the entrance of the Quingli opera house is cut short. The crew has orders from Chinese officials to be off the street by 5:00 a.m. The entrance has to be rebuilt and reshot in Toronto at an additional cost of $150,000.

Another scene calls for an old steam engine. An engine is brought down from a northern province, but during the shoot, the production is informed that the train has to be moved to make way for a regular train that must pass through. The scene is reshot inside the station house.

The crew treks the Great Wall for the panoramic shot. One hundred Chinese laborers haul equipment to this fantastic location.

September 1992: Cronenberg starts a 10-week shoot in Toronto. Spier builds a traditional courtyard, opera house and several interiors. Spier was able to bring back some Chinese bicycles, antique panels and fretwork, but most of the furniture is rented or purchased in Toronto.

Neil Jordan’s feature The Crying Game is released. Cronenberg and Martinelli see the film but feel that while the theme is similar, M. Butterfly is a completely different movie. From the start, Cronenberg has wanted to maintain a certain ambiguity in his film. The goal is not to shock audiences as in The Crying Game, but to show the relationship of two people who want to believe in their own illusion.

Nov. 17, 1992: The crew moves to Budapest for a three-week shoot. With the production under budget, the core crew is able to travel to Paris for a three-day second unit shoot with Irons.

Ron Sanders and his assistant, Michael Rea, are full-steam into editing. The film is posted at Film House, with David Evans and Wayne Griffin at Casablanca preparing the sound tracks.

March 1993: Geffen and Warner Bros.’ first screening of the film in Los Angeles. Changes are made which address the audience reactions to the story, particularly a flashback sequence at the beginning.

June 1993: The second, audience-recruited screening takes place in l.a. Very few changes are left to be made. The go-ahead is given by the studio to lock and complete the film.

August 1993: Third and final screening in l.a. Geffen and Warner Bros. are extremely pleased with the film. Hwang loves it and says he couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Sept. 9, 1993: M. Butterfly opens the Toronto Festival of Festivals.