In February 2015, Studio 8 acquired a spec script by Logan Miller and Noah Miller, titled White Boy Rick. In November 2016, Matthew McConaughey joined the cast of the film, with Yann Demange directing the film, Darren Aronofsky, Scott Franklin and John Lesher will produce the film under their Protozoa Pictures and LBI Entertainment banners, respectively. In January 2017, Bruce Dern and Jennifer Jason Leigh joined the cast of the film. In February 2017, Bel Powley and Brian Tryee Henry joined the cast of the film. In March 2017, Richie Merritt, Jonathan Majors, YG, Taylour Paige, Piper Laurie and RJ Cyler joined the cast of the film.
Principal photography began on March 14, 2017. Following audience testing, which were quite high - scoring in the 90s - Director Yann Demange was given the go-ahead to shoot extra scenes.
The film was initially scheduled to be released on January 12, 2018 but was pushed back two weeks to January 26, 2018, then again to August 17, 2018. In April 2018 it was delayed again to September 14, 2018.
