Roger Avary wrote the script and planned to direct the movie right after Killing Zoe (1993) with a cast comprising of : Jean-Hugues Anglade, Chow Yun-Fat, Dolph Lundgren, Matt Dillon, Nastassja Kinski, Vanessa Paradis, Tch�ky Karyo, Terence Stamp, Daniel Auteuil, Eric Stoltz and Tom Savini. The project was dropped for budgetary reasons and New Line backing out from distribution.
After Roger Avary backed out of the project, his script was rewritten many times. The final screenplay was so dramatically different from the original material that Avary opted to remove his name from the film.