Bill Horberg, who was associate producer, brought the book to Fred and Fred said: "Oh, this is great." I don't know if Bill had money or not to option the book, but Fred did, and he optioned it. He brought it to Jonathan [Demme and Gary Goetzman, he wanted Jonathan to direct it. Jonathan had just finished "Married to the Mob", which hadn't been released yet, and he had shot in Miami, and he said to Fred: "Why don't you give it to Din Armitage? Give it to George." And he did, and I loved it. He said "Do you want to write the script and direct it?" I said "Absolutely, let's go." I had worked for Mike Medavoy, who was now head of Orion Pictures, on "Vigilante Force", and he said: "Sure, good." Fred, Jonathan, and Gary—who would go on to produce a number of wonderful things for Tom Hanks's company, though this was his first film—were amazingly helpful.