recalled in a 2018 interview, "seeing these wild mutant looking frogs on the front page of your local newspaper totally felt like sci-fi/horror come to life". As Ojala progressed in his career as a filmmaker and special-effects artist and populations of deformed frogs continued to grow worldwide, he drew upon the mutations as the basis for his feature-film debut, surprised that a movie or documentary had never been made about the subject. Ojala wrote the screenplay for Strange Nature in the early-to-mid-2000s, and has cited William Souder's 2000 non-fiction book A Plague of Frogs as a major source of the movie's scientific facts and theories. During preproduction, Ojala consulted with several leading ecologists on the deformed frog phenomenon, one of whom was so supportive of the film that they supplied the production with actual deformed frogs that were used in several scenes. According to Ojala, he pitched Strange Nature as "Erin Brockovich...with monsters". Several producers initially showed interest in the project, though many of them voiced skepticism over Ojala's insistence on shooting in and using cast and crew from Minnesota, preferring to film in more commonly used locations such as Louisiana or Bulgaria. Some producers felt at odds with the unusual dramatic and realism ground tone of the script and requested rewrites to fit more conventional horror or science-fiction tropes: "One producer said I should end the movie with the reason for the deformities being aliens", Ojala recalled, "I never talked to that producer again". To retain more creative control over the film, a Kickstarter campaign was launched to help independently finance a portion of Strange Nature, setting a goal of $45,000. Due to Ojala's reputation in the film industry as a special-effects artist, the campaign was promoted by such prominent horror publication as Fangoria and successfully met its goal, raising a total of $46,088. Casting for Strange Nature took place between June and July 2014, with several principal roles filled by local Minnesota actors. For the role of Mayor Paulson, Ojala extended offers to numerous high-profile actors, including Kurt Russell and John Goodman - "people we had no business talking to", he mused, "at least we tried". Ultimately, the part went to veteran character actor Stephen Tobolowsky, who was "excited" to take on the role, as he felt the character was written realistically, rather than as a villainous archetype. Principal photography took place over 19 days in August 2014