The community and its racial tension is closely based on the true events that occurred in the community of Levittown, Pennsylvania in 1957 when an African American couple, William and Daisy Myers, along with their three young children, moved into a house in the Dogwood Hollow section of the suburban neighborhood. Their move to Levittown was marked with racist harassment and mob violence, which required intervention by state authorities. Despite this, the Myerses continued to face harassment for nearly three months. This led to some of the residents being charged and served an injunction. The Myers family received national attention and support. The Myers family eventually moved to York, Pennsylvania in 1961 after William Myers accepted a job offer in Harrisburg. He later died in 1987 at age 65. Daisy Myers later wrote an autobiography in 2005 about the experience titled 'Sticks 'N Stones: The Myers Family in Levittown'. She worked as a school teacher for the York School District for over 30 years. She was called the "Rosa Parks of the North". She died in 2011 at age 86. The news interviews that appear on TV in the film are from the actual citizens. They come from a documentary called "Crisis In Levittown, PA" from 1957. It can be found on Youtube.
Josh Brolin was cast in the movie as a baseball coach but his scenes ended up being removed after a test screening. George Clooney admitted that his scenes deflated the tension from the movie and felt badly to remove Brolin from the final cut as he considered the scenes one of the funniest in the entire picture.
The radio drama playing in the kid's room is an episode of Suspense from August 31, 1958 called The Whole Town's Sleeping, based on a short story by Ray Bradbury, narrated by William Conrad and starring Agnes Moorehead.
Had the lowest opening weekend gross of any Paramount film released in over 2,000 theaters.
After having acted in four of their movies, this is the first time that George Clooney will direct a Coen Brothers script.