Jean Reno chose to reprise his role due to the good experience he had working on the previous film, his friendship with Steve Martin, his joy at working with Alfred Molina again after The Da Vinci Code (2006) and his pleasure at working between Paris and Boston.
Steve Martin immediately accepted to reprise his role for this sequel because of his love of the character and the opportunity to do very physical, burlesque comedy.
Despite a rather extensive publicity campaign, a predominantly French setting, its hero being a French detective and the presence of one of France's most popular actors (Jean Reno) in the cast, the film was a huge commercial failure in France, lasting merely one week in most major multiplexes.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan quickly accepted the part of Sonia Solandres as she grew up watching the original films and Steve Martin's previous films and she knew families would enjoy viewing it and have a good laugh, especially her husband Abhishek Bachchan's niece and nephew.
John Cleese - taking over from Kevin Kline as Dreyfus - uses his own English accent in the film. Nevertheless, Cleese is capable of a very amusing French accent which he demonstrated in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).
Harald Zwart: [Fredrikstad] Zwart puts objects from his hometown in all of his movies. In this movie you can see a flag for the Norwegian soccer team Fredrikstad FK in the rucksack of Ponton's sons. It is visible when the sons and Inspector Clouseau are comparing their medals.