Production shut down numerous times due to financial problems. In May 2008, Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel walked off the set after producers failed to show they had enough money to pay the cast. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced it would keep all cast members from the movie until the production company showed it had enough money set aside in a union-mandated account. When the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) learned that below-the-line crew members were not being paid, union leaders called for staff-members to boycott the production. Production shut down again in June 2008, when several crew members didn't show up for work because they hadn't been paid.
Director David O. Russell left the project in July 2010, after negotiations with financier Ron Tutor broke down. He was credited as "Stephen Greene," similar to the old "Alan Smithee" pseudonym used by directors who disown the final version of a film they may have directed at one point but were not able to exercise creative control over.
In 2011, David Bergstein cobbled together whatever was filmed and gave test screenings in LA. The crew was unaware.
The film was featured, under the working title "Nailed," in Simon Braund's 2013 book "The Greatest Movies You'll Never See." It's the second film featured in the book, after The Day the Clown Cried (1972), to be completed, and the first to be released.
The opening credits scene where the ice cream truck is driving down a street in a small town in Indiana was actually filmed in New Milford, Connecticut. The footage is B-roll from the remake of Mr. Deeds (2002).
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