Acclaimed Flop: Got a positive critical reception, but unfortunately couldn’t make it’s budget back as it only grossed $32 million worldwide on a $40 million budget.
The character of Searle was originally written as a much older British man but Cliff Curtis (of Maori descent) gave the best audition.
Michelle Yeoh's audition was apparently so good that Danny Boyle told her she could have any part she wanted, even saying that he would give a Gender Flip to a male character to accommodate her. Corazon, the biologist, was her choice. Doubly impressive, since she said her agent initially refused to put her up for the film, saying "there's no room for Asian faces in there".
Accidental Pun: A film about people trying to restart the sun was put out by a studio called Fox Searchlight.
California Doubling: The final scene, set in Sydney, Australia, was actually filmed in Stockholm, Sweden. The Sydney Opera House was superimposed in post production.
Creator's Oddball: Danny Boyle had never done a sci-fi film before, and stated that he never would again, after how extensive the production on Sunshine was.
The main eight actors were required to live in an apartment together for three months before filming (the actors unanimously say the worst cook of the bunch was Michelle Yeoh). Cillian Murphy's wife was pregnant during this time, so he would go back home at night. This proved helpful for his character being the youngest member and an outsider to the crew. The voice of the spaceship, Chipo Chung, was usually somewhere on the set and would be directly talking to other members of the cast, which is very appropriate for the character she's voicing.
Also in the scene where Capa falls over in the very heavy gold spacesuit and struggles to get back up, unbeknownst to him several stage-hands held him down while he was inside the suit for the internal shots, in a attempt to make his struggling look more realistic.
Chris Evans was actually in freezing cold water for the scene where Mace is trying to fix the coolant. His breath rising and teeth chattering are real reactions to the cold.
Danny Boyle was advised to have Indian and Brazilian characters in there too, to reflect the advanced space programs of those nations too, but he ignored it in favour of American and Asian characters.
The first draft of the script heavily featured references to God and atheism. Danny Boyle chose to downplay them, so as not to alienate potential audiences.
Kaneda was written to be a white American. Space experts however advised Danny Boyle to change the nationality, further reflecting the international nature of space missions. The character was also called Kanada, but Hiroyuki Sanada requested the name changed to Kaneda - which is a more natural Japanese name.
Cassie was given some of Searle's scenes and lines when Cliff Curtis had to leave filming early.
Mace was scripted to just freeze to death in the cooling tank from exhaustion. Danny Boyle was impressed with the character and thought of him as The Determinator, so he wrote in Mace's leg getting trapped as a way to believably stop him from getting out.
A sex scene was planned between Capa and Cassie, but Danny Boyle scrapped it, feeling that the idea of sex in space was too ridiculous. Oddly enough, according to Chris Evans, Mace has been harboring a crush on Cassie for years. Which adds another layer as to why Mace and Capa are continually at odds.
Word of Saint Paul: According to Cliff Curtis, Searle wouldn't have fallen as far into Space Madness as Pinbacker if given the chance; the critical difference between them is that the former would sacrifice his beliefs, no matter how strong they may be, for the greater good of a tangible accomplishment on the scale of saving the human race, whereas the latter would not.
