In order to immerse himself in the character's situation and mental state, Adrien Brody stayed in the woods overnight at the car wreck, completely alone, in the middle of a Canadian winter, while the rest of the cast and crew went back to their hotels.
Adrien Brody admitted that while filming certain scenes, he actually ate insects and a worm.
The filmmakers held an informal contest among themselves to determine the most annoying song Adrien would hear on the car radio. Tiny Tim's version of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" won, hands down.
During a Q&A at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, the screenwriter (Dodd) revealed that he started writing the script as a "free-writing" experiment with no plan, no outline, and no idea of what was going to happen. On page one, when he realized that he didn't even know the identity of the main character, he put that idea into the script, too. The writer also said that the story, for him, was a metaphor for trying to get a movie made. "I would not, could not, give up," he said.
The wrecked car had to be lowered into place using a helicopter. After filming was completed, a helicopter was again needed to remove the car from the mountainside.