A re-interpretation of the crime was built up during the pre-production of "Los Amantes de Tetuán". The script was written by Aranda, Alvaro del Amo, and Carlos Perez Merinero, using some elements of the actual crime and reinventing many others to recreate the background of the characters, about which little was known. The television project was halted from 1987 to 1990, and when the time came to start production, "Los Amantes de Tetuán" took a separate life from "La Huella del Crimen". It was going to be the last chapter to be filmed because Vicente Aranda was immersed in the making of a mini-series for TVE. By then, Aranda was initially reluctant to make another production for television, and proposed to expand the script and make it into a full feature film for the big screen. Thanks to the recent success of his television mini-series, "Los Jinetes del Alba", the project was approved by TVE.