---

Original Screenplay (.pdf file / 4.9 MB)
Production Notes (.doc file / 0.5 MB)
Location Tour Map (.pdf file / 4.8 MB)

IMDB.com TRIVIA
The following contains miscellaneous information regarding the film's production.

 - Sandra Oh learned how to ride a motorcycle for her part in this film.

 - Alexander Payne selected the film's wine list himself.

 - The movie heard (but not seen) on the television in Miles and Jack's motel room when they get home from the hospital is The Grapes of Wrath (1940).

 - Most of the wine used in the wine-tasting scenes was non-alcoholic. The actors wound up drinking so much of it that it made them nauseated (and had to periodically switch to the real thing to clean out their palates).

 - The name of the character, sitting with his son, who tells Jack to tone down his language is Dr. Hendricks, the principal from Alexander Payne's Election (1999). (His name appears in the credits as "Vacationing Dr. Walt Hendricks" to explain his presence in Northern California instead of Nebraska.)

 - George Clooney campaigned for the part of Jack, but Alexander Payne thought he was too big a star.

 - When Miles hits the ball back at the golfers behind them, the person who actually hit the ball was Rex Pickett, author of the novel the film was based on. He claims that Paul Giamatti's exceptionally poor golf form made it impossible for him to accomplish the shot.

 - The scene where Jack says he starred in a couple television shows, is in reference to actor Thomas Haden Church. Church previously co-starred in "Wings" (1990) and "Ned and Stacey" (1995).

 - In the scene where the boy is reading a book aloud to Miles' class, is "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles. The boy mentions the name Phinneas, who is a main character in the book.

 - The picture that Miles (Paul Giamatti) looks at when at his mother's home is actually a picture of Paul Giammati and his father, former Commissioner of MLB, Bart Giamatti.