For the film, director Shainberg, best known for his erotic indie film Secretary, reunited with its screenwriter, Erin Cressida Wilson, who used Patricia Bosworth's Diane Arbus: A Biography as a source. As its name implies, the film is a fictional account rather than an accurate biography. Mark Romanek had previously tried to direct and write a film based on Bosworth's biography for DreamWorks Pictures.
