On 14 April 2005, in Trondheim, Norway, this became the first movie in the world to be shown with a 4K digital cinema projector.
Matt Dillon and Mickey Rourke, who played brothers in Francis Ford Coppola's cult film Rusty James (1983), have both played the role of Henry Chinaski (Rourke played in Barfly (1987)).
This is the second feature film in which Matt Dillon and Fisher Stevens go to the horse races (the first being Le Kid de la plage (1984)).
The film cast includes two Oscar winners: Marisa Tomei and Fisher Stevens; and one Oscar nominee: Matt Dillon.