The production will shoot in Hungary Scott announced. Shooting is set to commence in October, 2009.

With a completed script at hand, 'the Budapest thing seems to be locked in,' an American source told FNE. Scott paid a visit to Hungary for location scouting and found locations to stand in for 1950's Soviet Union. Negotiations are underway to find a local production services company. Budget figures have not be released.

Ridley and Tony Scott's company, Scott Free will produce. Its president, Michael Costigan and vice president, Michael Ellenberg brought the project to Fox 2000 last year, before the book's release in 2008.

Set in Stalinist Russia, Child 44 is a political thriller about the inner workings and defects of Communism as seen through the eyes of a KGB officer who gets involved in the case of a serial killer who murders children.

The Scotts have a history of filming in Hungary. Scott Free Productions produced the TV series Company (2007), another Cold War-related production in the country. The director's brother, Tony Scot shot the Berlin-sequences for Spy Game (2001) in Budapest.

Recent international productions that shot in Hungary include Miramax's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas with Vera Farmiga, and Odd Lot International's Good, starring Viggo Mortensen.