As stated in the end credits, the movie was inspired by Beautiful Young Minds (2007). The character Nathan Ellis is based on Daniel Lightwing, specifically his experiences before and during the IMO competition.
This is a project selected at 2013 Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum in Hong Kong.
One of the filming locations was King Edward VII Upper School in Sheffield.
One of the filming locations was High Storrs School in Sheffield, England.
Eddie Marsan previously featured together with Sally Hawkins in Vera Drake (2004) and Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), and with Rafe Spall in The World's End (2013).