The movie is loosely based of of the life of Ken Baker. Baker told his son that a third was pure fiction, a third was partially true, and a third was straight out of his life.
It was first publicly announced that Skylar Astin was cast in the lead role on the June 9th, 2015 episode director Kevin Pollak's chat show.
Johnny Simmons and J.K. Simmons (who are no relation to each other) also worked together in Jennifer's Body (2009) and the short film Whiplash (2013).
Paul Wesley and Brittany Snow previously starred together on the show "American Dreams" which aired on NBC.