Kiefer Sutherland got his part by writing to Clint Eastwood telling him how big a fan of his he was, and that he wanted to star in one of his movies before he retired. Kiefer's dad, Donald Sutherland, had co-starred with Clint in El botín de los valientes (1970) and Jinetes del espacio (2000).
According to Puck, the film was originally supposed to release only on Max, but was upgraded to a limited theatrical release at the last minute. The first trailer gained much more positive reception than the studio anticipated.
Toni Collette and Nicholas Hoult previously played mother and son 22 years ago in Un gran chico (2002).
Director Clint Eastwood was unaware that Nicholas Hoult is the great nephew of British actress Anna Neagle when he cast him. Eastwood was hugely impressed when he was informed of this during production, as Eastwood had watched several of her films as a young man and was a particular fan of Agente S-23 (1950).