The movie is dedicated "In Loving Memory of Harry Hurwitz", the writer and director of the original The Comeback Trail (1982).
The fictional production company Miracle Pictures and its slogan "If it's a good picture it's a Miracle", originally appeared in Hollywood Boulevard (1976), where it was owned by a sleazy producer named Walter Paisley, played by Dick Miller. Later, the company's name and slogan re-appeared in Amazon Women on the Moon (1987). Both movies were co-directed by Joe Dante, who also directed Matinee (1993), which was about a fictional horror movie named 'Mant', about a monster that is half man, half ant. At one point during this movie here, a poster for another fictional movie named 'Mantula' is shown, which is about a monster that is half man, half tarantula.
As of 2024, the film has never been released theatrically in the United States.
Although the film pokes broad fun at Hollywood movies and especially westerns from past eras, it specifically references The Searchers (1956): the character played by Duke Montana (Tommy Lee Jones) in 'The Oldest Gun In The West' is said to be "one-eighth Cherokee", a reference to the character played by Jeffrey Hunter in The Searchers who was also one-eighth Cherokee; German actors play the Native Americans, which is probably a jab at The Searchers where the Native American chief was infamously played by German-born Henry Brandon (who played many Native American characters in his career); and near the end, when the car drives past a church, the famous closing shot of The Searchers (a sun-lit door opening filmed from inside a dark area) is used.
De Niro previously worked with Jones and Freeman in the 2013 films The Family and Last Vegas respectively. Freeman and Jones also previously collaborated in Just Getting Started (2017).