The song heard on the soundtrack when the film ends is "The Big Ship" by Brian Eno, one of David Foster Wallace's favorite songs. It was also used for the climax of Quel fantastico peggior anno della mia vita (2015), another film that premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
The scene at Wallace's house where Wallace and Lipsky meet for the very first time was also the first time Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg met each other in real life.
In the scenes filmed at the home of Wallace (Jason Segel), meat had to be placed in the pants of both David Foster Wallace (Segel) and David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) in order to have the dogs all over them. In the scenes where the dogs woke up Lipsky (Eisenberg) peanut butter was also placed on his face, again, in order to attract the dogs.
David Lipsky's book was the main resource used by the screenwriter. Lipsky's tapes, which play a large part in the movie, were only used as a resource for the cast and crew during their research of the characters.
The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2013 Blacklist; a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year.