The community and its racial tension is closely based on the true events that occurred in the community of Levittown, PA. The news interviews that appear on TV are from the actual citizens. They come from a documentary called "Crisis In Levittown, PA" from 1957. It can be found on Youtube.
Josh Brolin was cast in the movie as a baseball coach but his scenes ended up being removed after a test screening. George Clooney admitted that his scenes deflated the tension from the movie and felt badly to remove Brolin from the final cut as he considered the scenes one of the funniest in the entire picture.
The radio drama playing in the kid's room is an episode of Suspense from August 31, 1958 called The Whole Town's Sleeping, based on a short story by Ray Bradbury, narrated by William Conrad and starring Agnes Moorehead.
Had the lowest opening weekend gross of any Paramount film released in over 2,000 theaters.
After having acted in four of their movies, this is the first time that George Clooney will direct a Coen Brothers script.