The Italian Job (2003 film) film upon which it was based. "BusinessWeek" reported in April 2004 that sales of the Mini in 2003—the year in which "The Italian Job" was theatrically released—had increased 22 percent over the previous year. A sequel to "The Italian Job", tentatively titled "The Brazilian Job", was in development by the summer of 2004, but has since faced multiple delays. Principal photography was initially slated to begin in March 2005, with a projected release date in November or December 2005. However, the script was never finalized, and the release date was pushed back to sometime in 2006, and later summer 2007.
The Italian Job (2003 film) Pfister worked together to develop a visual style for the film before production began. They viewed car commercials and magazine photographs, as well as chase sequences from "The French Connection" (1971), "Ronin" (1998), and "The Bourne Identity" (2002) as visual references. Pfister wanted "dark textures and undertones and strong contrast"; he collaborated with production designer Charlie Wood on the color palette, and the two would confer with Gray on their ideas. Paramount preferred that "The Italian Job" not be shot in the anamorphic format, despite Pfister's wishes to do so. Gray wanted a widescreen aspect ratio, so they chose to