The producers managed to obtain full use of an abandoned high school called Fort William Collegiate institute in Thunder Bay, Ontario for the bulk of principal photography.
The Hamlet books are actually various volumes of 'Popular Mechanics Do-It-Yourself Encyclopedias' from 1955.
The fictional town of Pineville is set in the state New Jersey. The movie features students in Pineville High wearing New Jersey Devils branding courtesy of the NHL as it is the favorite team of director Lee Chambers.
This is the first movie having Red Rock, Ontario as one of the locations to shoot a movie.
Screenplay developed with support from Diane Nabatoff ('Narc'), Tom Craig (former Senior VP of Production at Universal Pictures) and Dave Trottier (the author of the Screenwriter's Bible).