A number of actors were considered for the title role when development of the show moved to the USA Network, including Dave Foley, John Ritter, and Henry Winkler. The three finalists for the role were Stanley Tucci, Alfred Molina, and Tony Shalhoub. When Tucci and Molina were unavailable, Shalhoub became the obvious choice. Tucci appears here as an actor portraying Monk in a made-for-TV movie, mimicking him so exactly he literally becomes Monk (even uncannily "remembering" details from Trudy's last day Monk himself had forgotten). Molina would guest star as another eccentric character in Mr. Monk and the Naked Man (2007).
Stottlemeyer notes that a producer of the Monk-based movie "The Killer Astronaut" is named Hoberman. David Hoberman is an executive producer of this series.
The movie that is being made about Monk is based on one of his previous cases involving an astronaut. That case was shown in the (aptly named) episode Monk (2002) (#4.15).
The original script for this episode called for a kid dressed in a cowboy suit to find the murder weapon. The "little cowboy" was to be played by Nicholas Stargel. This was his first booking at the age of 5. The "little cowboy" uses the gun to play the Cisco Kid and fires on Monk and Natalie. Due to time, the scene was cut and the murder weapon was found in a downspout.