 According to an interview with the director, Shaun Peterson, the  movie is loosely based on an online persona Connor Ratliff created,  named Ryan Johnson, for a fake Star Wars rumors site in 1998, when  the Star Wars prequels were in production. Ratliff spun a fictional  family around the Ryan character to such depth that he soon realized  he had created viable characters for a film, and proceeded to write  the story of Ryan Johnson, Amy Johnson, and his friend Todd.