Approval of God: Katherine Patterson approved several of the changes, such as a boy who coaches Gilly in math or the altered ending, feeling they worked better for a film than a book.
Dawson Casting: Gilly is twelve, played by Sophie Nélisse at fifteen.
Real-Life Relative: The screenplay was written by David Patterson, son of author Katherine Patterson, also responsible for the screenplay of her novel Bridge to Terabithia. He had also written the Broadway musical adaptation.
Danny Glover was cast as Mr. Randolph but had to drop out, and was replaced by Bill Ellis.
Katherine Patterson wanted her cameo to be "a bag lady at the bus station", but the Screen Actors Guild required that she had to have at least two lines, so it was changed to being at the candy counter.
