Face/Off Werb and Michael Colleary tried to sell to a studio from as early as 1990. The first actors who were chosen to play Sean Archer and Castor Troy were Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger respectively but John Woo instead hired John Travolta and Nicolas Cage to play those characters. It took numerous studios, producers and rewrites before John Woo became attached several years later. For the Archer character, Woo considered casting either Michael Douglas or Jean-Claude Van Damme with whom he had worked in "Hard Target". When the film was eventually made, Douglas served as an executive producer. Werb and
Ellen Travolta 1970s, she played Dorothy Manucci in the short-lived television series "Makin' It". She played Marion Keisker in John Carpenter's renowned 1979 television film "Elvis". Ellen Travolta has been a longtime performer and supporter of the Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre where she appeared in a production of "Hello, Dolly!" in the Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre in 2000 and 2012 playing the star role opposite her husband's portrayal of Horace Vandergelder. The theatre is the beneficiary of the Helen Burke Travolta Memorial fund, established in honor of Ms. Travolta's mother. Travolta has stated, "My mother was the beginning of all of this