Development Nine Days is an American co-production between Juniper Productions,
Mandalay Pictures, Nowhere, MACRO Media, The Space Program, Mansa Productions, Oak Street Pictures, 30West, Baked Studios, and Datari Turner Productions. Oda said the film was an exploration of how a real loss can create both the burden and gift of being alive. The character of Will is based on his uncle, who died by suicide at age 50 when Oda was 12 years old. Oda said people would go on to remember his uncle for how he died instead of for the life he lived. He wanted to write a story about what his uncle was going through "instead of judging him through what he did". In 2017, the
Sundance Institute selected Oda as one of fifteen emerging screenwriters to participate in its annual screenwriting lab at the Sundance Resort in Utah. Producers on
Nine Days were
Jason Michael Berman, Mette-Marie Kongsved, Matthew Linder, Laura Tunstall, and Datari Turner. Oda credited Jonze's
Her (2013), a film tackling similar themes of humanity and vulnerability, as a major inspiration for
Nine Days, taking notice of
Scarlett Johansson's performance as Samantha in the film: "She's almost like a soul ... finding love and all those emotions so dramatically."
Casting Winston Duke read the screenplay after working on
Us and was immediately interested in its depiction of mental illness and depression. Duke sat down with Oda for a meeting, which turned into a four-hour conversation about various topics ranging from filmmaking to content they both enjoyed to a discussion about life as an immigrant. As Oda described it, "It was almost like, I don't know, love at first sight. It was just amazing to see that I could trust this guy so much. I had a feeling that he has this big heart for humanity inside him." Though the lead role was originally set to be played by an Asian actor, Duke got the part the day after the meeting. According to Duke, the film's title is a reference to the funerary tradition practiced in the Caribbean known as the
nine nights, where a person is mourned for nine days because it takes their spirit nine days to say goodbye. On June 7, 2019, Duke,
Zazie Beetz,
Bill Skarsgård,
Benedict Wong and
David Rysdahl were announced to star. Beetz described her character as having a "childlike wonder", living in the present and confronting her issues instead of ignoring them like Will. To prepare for the role, Wong isolated himself from other people: "I locked myself up in a room ... [and] I didn't talk to anyone, solely just to have personal isolation. And when I came out, I wanted human contact, so that was like Kyo who would walk off into the dead of night, and no one knows where he goes." Hale described his character as a jokester who wants to have a good time. He categorized Arianna Ortiz's character as a romantic and Rysdahl's character as sensitive, stating that "there was a risk that we each took fully being ourselves. For some, for many, it didn't have the result we wanted, but we did take that risk." When asked about Will's response to his character, Hale said their "personalities triggered something that I think he felt he might've lacked. And so, since he didn't understand it, he didn't think we could take it when in actuality, it might've been a piece of him that was missing that could have helped."
Filming were utilized for the shoot. The cast had rehearsals for two weeks. Cinematographer Wyatt Garfield cited ''
Schindler's List (1993), Seven (1995), Taking Off (1971), and There Will Be Blood'' (2007) as inspirations for the interview scenes and
Gregory Crewdson as a point of reference for lighting. Garfield said there were two distinct locations in the film. The "
limbo" setting, where Will lives, was captured using an
Arri Alexa Mini with
anamorphic lenses by Optica Elite because they "wanted to feel that the house itself was subtly bending and breathing and not totally concrete". The "real world" scenes, projected only through the televisions in Will's house, were filmed in the span of three weeks in
Salt Lake City, Brazil, and Los Angeles with a number of lightweight cameras rigged to helmets and headgear, including a Sony Venice, a Codex Action Cam, and a Blackmagic Cinema Camera. As a result of the tight schedule, Oda had to cut fifteen pages from the script, including scenes featuring a symbolic spotlight and others involving Kyo. Principal photography lasted for 24 days. Filming took place in 2019 between August and September in the state of Utah with support from the Motion Picture Incentive Program. An interior set of Will's house was built in a warehouse in
West Valley City. Hale said that the house was built beside an office space, where he would often go to rehearse his lines, and noted the contrast between atmospheres.
Nine Days was shot entirely in chronological order. Filming would start on Saturdays and end on Wednesdays with two-day breaks in between. The last scene, consisting of a three-page monologue, was filmed over the course of one sunset without any rehearsal or choreography.
Nine Days received the Dolby Institute Fellowship, a post-production grant that allowed the sound designers to complete the film in
Dolby Vision and
Dolby Atmos.
Antônio Pinto composed the musical score; the theme song, played by Amanda's character on the violin, was composed during pre-production. The song played during the bicycle scene was composed by Yaniel Matos and performed in Portuguese by Manuela Julian. ==Release==