The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2012 Blacklist; a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year.
The leather jacket that Russell Crowe's character wears is the same make and model that Jensen Ackles's character wears on Supernatural: Zur Hölle mit dem Bösen (2005) from season 1-5. The real jacket from that show was stolen while filming a promo shoot for season 6.
The film's cast includes three Oscar winners: Russell Crowe, Octavia Spencer, and Jane Fonda; and three Oscar nominees: Quvenzhané Wallis, Janet McTeer and Amanda Seyfried .
Russel Crowe and Amanda Seyfried have worked together before, in the 2012 film, Les Misérables.
Russell Crowe filmed some scenes in the library of Shady Side Academy Senior School in Pittsburgh, PA.