The Book That Wrote Itself is a first in movie history, it's got Hollywood celebrities playing cameo parts and in some big dialogue scenes - to boot without their knowledge or without needing their permission. They include George Clooney, Kenneth Branagh, Melanie Griffith, Chazz Palaminteri and Bryan Singer. Other noteworthy cameos in the film include Robert DeNiro, Warren Beatty, Annette Benning, Jean Reno, Sir Ian McKellan, Sean Bean and Catherine Deneuve.

The Book That Wrote Itself, was filmed in Ireland over a three week period in October/November 1998 in a quasi-documentary style and during three days in September '98 in Venice, where Liam O'Mochain (in character as Vincent, the lead in the film) went with a film crew to the Venice Film Festival, blagged a press card and shamelessly tried to convince a host of celebrities at press conferences to take part in his character's forthcoming film 'The Daughter of Conn'.

The filmmakers were able to shoot at the film festival as they had a press pass, and press conferences are deemed public domain. They were also able to use the cameos by the Hollywood stars as their contributions were made while they were publicising their public image which is deemed public domain and is not an infringment of their personal life or their image.