In 1964, Monte Hellman and Jack Nicholson had made two films together, "Back Door to Hell" and "Flight to Fury", which were produced by Roger Corman and filmed back-to-back in the Philippines. After completing the films, the director and actor wrote a screenplay called "Epitaph" and presented it to Corman to produce. Corman did not care for the script, but asked if the two would be willing to do a Western for him, instead. When they expressed an interest, Corman further suggested that they film "two" Westerns, in a manner similar to the Philippine-shot movies they had just finished. They agreed, and while Nicholson started working on the script for "Ride in the Whirlwind", Hellman asked their mutual friend Carole Eastman to write "The Shooting".