'Sean Penn' was the first choice for the role of Henry Chinaski.
On 14 April 2005, in Trondheim, Norway, this became the first movie in the world to be shown with a 4K digital cinema projector.
Matt Dillon and Mickey Rourke, who played brothers in Francis Ford Coppola's cult film "Rumble Fish", have both played the role of "Henry Chinaski" (Rourke in "Barfly).
This is the second feature film in which Matt Dillon and Fisher Stevens go to the horse races (the first being "Flamingo Kid").