John Hughes' final film as a writer before his death in 2009. As in Ein Hund namens Beethoven (1992) and Manhattan Love Story (2002), he requested his name be removed (since so much was changed between script and movie), and is credited as Edmond Dantes, title character of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
This is the first time Seth Rogen has collaborated with someone other than Evan Goldberg, his regular writing partner, on a screenplay.
Alex Frost (Filkins) and Josh Peck (Ronnie) actually crashed the car while filming the chase scene with Nate Hartley (Wade), Troy Gentile (Ryan), and David Dorfman (Emmit).
The bodyguard interrogation scene, where the kids eventually meet Drillbit (Owen Wilson), was the first scene filmed of the whole production.
A friend of co-producer Judd Apatow, at Paramount Pictures, told him he had a script treatment that John Hughes was never able to finish. He asked Seth Rogen to take a look at it. They made the movie in the tradition of a John Hughes teen comedy.