 Blitz wrote the script "off and on" over a year in between stints of commercial directing.He cites directors Hal Ashby and Billy Wilder as his greatest influences with their absurdist comedies, though critics have suggested influence from Gary Larson, Alexander Payne, Mike Nichols and Wes Anderson—the latter despite Blitz specifically saying, "I did not want a Wes Andersen snowglobe artificial world.