The unsolicited screenplay was written by two novice writers, actor Gregory Fleeman and documentarian Robert T. Megginson. Producer Jack Wiener read their script, which was submitted as a low-budget television movie, and felt that it should be made into a theatrical release. Wiener and his co-producer Dodi Fayed hired Robert Mandel, an Off-Broadway director. They did not want to hire an action director, but instead wanted a director who would bring a realistic touch to the film and make the audience care about the main character. Mandel accepted the job because he wanted to dispel the perception that he was a "soft, arty director". Initially he was not impressed with the film's screenplay, which he felt was not well-crafted but felt that it provided for "a lot of action and a lot of things I did not have under my belt". In preparation for the film's action sequences, Mandel studied chase scenes from "Bullitt" and "The French Connection". To pull off the film's special effects, the producers hired John Stears, who had worked on the first eight James Bond films and shared a special effects Academy Award for "".