The film represents a second project for Katherine's company which she recently formed with her mother Nancy. Abishag is already set to produce an action comedy with Spyglass, Nash Entertainment and Fox 2000 in which she will also star.

The Los Angeles Times has revealed some background to the project in an article entitled Katherine Heigl looks into 'Lost & Found'. Nancy is quoted as saying that they snapped up the rights to Sheehan's novel, which has 120,000 copies in print, because "it's a sensitive and honest portrayal of loss and the journey toward healing and starting over," showing "the profound bond that exists between humans and animals".

The newspaper reports that Katherine's push to seek out the film rights on her own illustrates a growing trend among young Hollywood stars, who are proactively snaring the rights to promising literary material.

Sheehan's representative Sarah Self at the Gersh Agency said "It was refreshing and it shows that she [Heigl] is thinking about the long term, and is serious not only about acting, which she does well, but producing. I've seen it happen more and more, and stars realize that if they just sit back and react to what is thrown at them, they'll miss out on material they can control."