 Canadian director Atom Egoyan adapted the screenplay after his wife, actress Arsinée Khanjian, suggested he read Russell Banks' "The Sweet Hereafter".The novel is inspired by an incident in Alton, Texas, in 1989, in which a bus crash killed 21 students, leading to multiple lawsuits.Egoyan found it initially challenging to acquire the rights, as they had been optioned to another studio that was not actually producing it.