Acting in the Dark: Laura Dern and Justin Theroux admitted they had no clue what the film was about when it premiered. Lynch was as cryptic towards his cast as he was towards the general public.
Deleted Role: Michael Paré had a minor role that was completely removed from the final cut.
Deleted Scene: One hour worth of them, put together by Lynch as "More Things That Happened".
Keep Circulating the Tapes: Before being rescued by The Criterion Collection in 2023, the film was never reprinted in the US outside its first DVD Run back in 2007, and was never given a digital release. The only way to watch this film was to import a copy or buy a second hand copy, which would go for as low as $40.
Mid-Development Genre Shift: The film originally began its life as a series of experimental videos made to test David Lynch's digital camera. It wasn't until he subconsciously connected the scenes together and later got funding from StudioCanal that it became a feature film.
No Export for You: Inverted: before it was reissued via The Criterion Collection, this American film was not easily available in the USA, but it could be bought new or rented in the UK. For example, in 2021 Amazon had the Blu-ray for £8 (about $10).
Shrug of God: David Lynch doesn't like to talk about his movies, and when asked about Inland Empire, he replied that "it's about a woman in trouble and it's a mystery and that's all I want to say about it."
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The film was written on a scene-by-scene basis, making for a rather surreal "story." The interview segments were apparently filmed first, with the rest of the film revolving loosely around them.
Miscellaneous Trivia
Shot on standard definition Sony DV camcorders because of their relative ease of use and versatility instead of film or High Definition camcorders.
Because the film was shot in Standard Definition, for the 2022 restoration done by Janus Films and Lynch himself, all the visuals were upscaled through the Gaia HD algorithm, scaled back down, and then scanned through Topaz Labs’ Gigapixel AI software to give the film a better look. As this led to bad artifacting, every frame with the artifacting had to be completely re-colored to make the film look smoother.
