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
Angels with Dirty Faces "Angels with Dirty Faces" was released on VHS by Warner Bros. In February 2005, a digitally-remastered version of the film was released on DVD. The release was part of the "James Cagney Collection", in which a number of special bonus features were made available, including: audio commentary by film historian Dana Polan, an "Angels with Dirty Faces: Whaddya Hear? Whaddya Say?" featurette, a radio production, movie trailers, and a short film titled "Warner Night at the Movies" with film critic and historian Leonard Maltin. This was followed by a further release as part of The Criterion Collection in April, 2007,