A flashback sequence that took place in the early-'80s was deleted after the first rough cut. It depicted Eric as a kid (played by Creagen Dow), how he met Lenny, and how he learned to be a video pirate. Shot on a circa-1983 home video camera, the picture quality of the tape was deemed too poor, and the sequence ultimately unnecessary, in spite of the filmmakers' fondness for it. It will be included on an upcoming edition of the DVD.
This was Kevin Abrams' second AFI thesis film he directed in 2005. The first was the award-winning "LEFT AT THE RIO GRANDE."
Writer/producer Alex Simon got the idea for the script when he noticed the pages of the Hollywood trade papers increasingly filled with stories of the growth of video piracy world-wide.
At one point, a still from Charlie Chaplin's classic film THE KID is shown, picturing Chaplin and young Jackie Coogan, who was Chaplin's costar. Jackie was the uncle of Jonathan Coogan, who plays Mitch in AUTEUR.