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
John Travolta and suffered regular seizures and immediately made his public statements while giving testimony after a multimillion-dollar extortion plot against him in connection to his son's death. After a mistrial, Travolta dropped the charges and has credited his immediate family and Scientology with helping him survive the death of his son and in moving forward with his film career. In memory of his son, Travolta created the Jett Travolta Foundation, a non-profit organization to help children with special needs. It has contributed to organizations such as the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, and the