Jeff Bridges had been trying to have the film made for nearly 20 years and even filmed a version of it with his family. Speaking on the Nerdist Podcast he said: "I originally wanted to direct my father in it. As a matter of fact, somewhere in some garage, there is a version of this movie with my father (Lloyd Bridges) playing The Giver, Bud Cort narrates the whole thing, Beau's kids, one is shooting it, one is playing Jonas. We did the whole book, so that's around somewhere."
In the original novel, Jonas and his friends are 12 years old; however, for the film they were aged up by six years.
Jeff Bridges learned that his friend and fellow actor Robin Williams died by suicide on the same night that the film premiered. It is apparent that Bridges was trying his hardest to hide his pain and prevent himself from crying during interviews on the red carpet. Both men had co-starred in The Fisher King (1991).
Katie Holmes, who plays Brenton Thwaites's mother, is only 10 years his senior. This is entirely appropriate to the story, as families, in this future, are assembled by the state rather than biologically connected.
Nelson Mandela died while the film was being shot in South Africa, and his image is used in the film as a "memory."