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 acting career. These included "Two of a Kind" (1983), a romantic comedy reteaming him with Olivia Newton-John, and "Perfect" (1985), co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis. He also starred in "Staying Alive", the 1983 sequel to "Saturday Night Fever", for which he trained rigorously and lost 20 pounds; the film was a financial success, grossing over $65 million, though it too was scorned by critics. During that time Travolta was offered, but declined, lead roles in what would become box-office hits, including "American Gigolo" and "An Officer and a Gentleman", both of which went to Richard Gere. In 1989, Travolta starred with