Willem Holleeder (Sam Worthington) went on to become a kingpin in the Dutch underworld, being held responsible for ordering several contract killings, amongst which, the 2003 assassination of his former best friend and co-kidnapper Cor van Hout (Jim Stugess). When the film was released in 2015, Holleeder was in custody awaiting trial for many of those contracts, however, not in relation to the Cor van Hout case. In July 2019, Holleeder was found guilty of five murders and ordered to serve a life sentence.
Dutch crime reporter and co-writer Peter R. de Vries did not attend the movie premiere, because he did not agree with the end result. He felt the events depicted in the movie were too different from the actual kidnapping as he had described it in his book. Oddly enough, de Vries had agreed to participate in the making of this movie, because he felt that the first movie about the famous kidnapping, The Heineken Kidnapping (2011), had not been accurate with many of the historical facts either.
In a spectacular turn of events, two sisters of Willem Holleeder (Sam Worthington); Sonja (Jemima West) and Astrid; along with a former girlfriend of his turned against him, giving statements to the police about his involvement in the ordering of several contract killings, amongst which, the one of his former blood brother and brother-in-law Cor van Hout (Jim Sturgess) in 2003. Holleeder was convicted of murder in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison.
The brother of Alfred Heineken's driver was a well known comedy actor (Joop Doderer) in The Netherlands.
Willem Holleeder was also called "The Nose" because of his rather remarkable, large nose.