Meirelles originally sought to cast actor Daniel Craig as Doctor, but negotiations were not finalized.

A bloodthirsty soldier nearly murders a terrified blind man, but the new sergeant on duty stops him. The man yells out that he has suddenly gone blind: his entire field of vision is a sea of whiteness.By September 2006, Fernando Meirelles was attached to Blindness, with the script being adapted by Don McKellar. I don’t think we did go blind, I think we are blind, Blind but seeing, Blind people who can see, but do not see. The director also gave Moore's character a wardrobe that would match the actor's skin and dyed blond hair, giving her the appearance of a "pale angel".

Because he has been blind since birth, the Accountant is much more used to relying on his other senses, which gives him a major advantage over the other prisoners; he assumes control over Ward 3 and the food supplies for the community after the King is murdered. His debut novel, The Land of Sin, was published the same year, 1947, that his only child, Violante, was born. Glover described his character: "The Man with the Black Eye Patch comes into this new world of blindness already half blind, so I think he understands where he is within his own truth, within himself.With only one character's point of view available, Meirelles sought to switch the points-of-view throughout the film, seeing three distinct stylistic sections. The film, like the novel, directly addresses sight and point of view and asks you to see things from a different perspective.