The film's plot was originally not centered around the idea of scripted life, but rather that the moon was on course to crash into Earth, and followed the people of Golden Lane as they struggled to live their last few days the best they could. Upon completing the script, the writer/director felt it was too close to the plot of Don McKellar's Last Night (1998), and chose to sway the tone of the film towards a more surreal feel with a major plot change and rewrite.