At the screening of "The Headhunter's Calling" at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada on September 14, 2016, Gerard Butler (Dane Jensen) stated in a red-carpet interview that he had so much fun in Canada working on this project that he would absolutely love to live in Toronto again. Growing up, Butler used to spend summers as a teenager in Toronto when he worked for his father, who was divorced from his mother back across the pond, at a souvenir shop on Queen's Quay.
The sequential timeline of this movie's writing, planning, and creation took place over the course of six (6) years as: The screenplay was written in November 2012 by screenwriter Bill Dubuque. Three (3) years later, it was then announced On September 2, 2015 that Gerard Butler would both star and executive produce the family packed drama with film producer Alan Siegel and also the film's own debut director Mark Williams. Voltage Pictures then of which came on board to handle the international sales for the film. Principle photography was filmed in December 2015 and additional photography was filmed from early 2016 to mid 2016. The movie was then screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada in September 2016. Distribution for the film took all the way from mid 2016 to early 2017. Finally, the film was slapped with a theater date of July 28th 2017.