- Ben Affleck's directorial debut in a major motion picture, although he did direct two other movies that never made it to the big screen.
- "Gone Baby Gone" is Ben Affleck's favorite novel.
- The film's UK release, scheduled for 28 December 2007, was postponed for almost six months because of the film's similarity to the real-life case of four-year-old Madeleine McCann who disappeared from the holiday apartment where she and her family were staying in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on 3 May 2007.
- Broadway actress Amy Ryan looked and sounded so convincing as a low class Dorchester mom that a security guard mistook her for a fan on the first day of location filming, and wouldn't let her on the set. One of the producers finally noticed her on the other side of one of the barricades, and said she should be let through. The incident made Ryan twenty minutes late, but convinced her the Boston accent she'd prepared was realistic.
- Amy Ryan was so convincing with her Boston accent in her audition, that director Ben Affleck asked her what part of Boston she was from
- According to the DVD commentary, the flyover shot of the quarry is a special effects shot, since the quarry actually had no water.
- Jill Quigg was discovered when the production's barricades in the streets of Boston prevented her from picking up her son from school. Ben Affleck was so impressed by her loud rants against the film crew that he asked her to read for the movie.
- Ben Affleck initially considered starring in the film.
- Ben Affleck's high school chemistry teacher (Ed McGillicuddy) makes a cameo appearance in the scene when they are leaving the funeral.
- The character of Jerome Miller (a.k.a. "Bubba", Patrick's drug-lord friend) is played by Boston hip-hop performer Slaine. In the scene where Bubba and Patrick are driving up to Everett to meet Leon and Roberta Trett, the song playing on the stereo in their SUV is by Slaine.
- Dennis Lehane's novel is the fourth of his to feature the private investigator partners Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro.
- Those are real local Boston actors and members of the local populace in all the backgrounds. Ben Affleck made a deliberate choice not to cast professional extras for authenticity.
- Ben Affleck's first screenwriting credit since his Oscar win for Good Will Hunting (1997).
- Titus Welliver had to keep his large mustache as he was still involved in the filming of "Deadwood" (2004) at the time.
- During the middle of filming, Michelle Monaghan also started work on The Heartbreak Kid (2007) for the Farrelly brothers which required her having her bangs cut. These had to be added as a special effect to maintain continuity.
- Although much of the dialog is verbatim from the book, director Ben Affleck reckoned that if he hadn't severely trimmed the novel, the film would have lasted 7 hours.
- This shares many connections with Baltimore-set drama, HBO's "The Wire" (2002). Original novelist Dennis Lehane has scripted several episodes in that series, and both Amy Ryan and Michael K. Williams have had recurring roles.
- The brothers Affleck had previously worked together as actors on Good Will Hunting (1997), Chasing Amy (1997) and 200 Cigarettes (1999).
- On the DVD commentary, Ben Affleck says that he and Jill Quigg improvised the scene early in the movie in which Quigg (as Dottie) talks to the press about the flyers they had posted and the vigils they had planned. Affleck says that he would feed her some lines and then she would perform them; her mispronunciation of the word "vigil" as "visual" came from her mishearing what Affleck had said from behind the camera, but he later decided to keep it the way she had said it.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- SPOILER: The cartoon playing in the background at the end of the film is in the public domain as no cartoon creators would let the production use their footage in such a controversial scene. Likewise, the "RoboDudes" brand and children's t-shirt worn by Corwin Earle had to be created by the film crew, since no toy or cartoon company would allow a representation of their product to be worn by a pedophile child murderer character.
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