When the project was first announced, Steve Carell, Amy Schumer, and Nicole Kidman were cast in the lead roles. All three dropped out when after the project got stuck in development.
Marisa Tomei spent a few nights staying on and sleeping in the tugboat in which the film would be shot in order to get a sense of what it would be like to interact with the crew and live in such tiny, cramped headquarters.
About the tugboat, director Rebecca Miller said, "It felt like it was a very easy metaphor for independent film. Because essentially that's what you're doing - you're going out there against the huge, next big corporations and somehow pushing the big barges up the river."