In the late 1970s, film producer Thom Mount paid US$100,000 for the film rights to the obituary of Chicano activist Oscar Zeta Acosta, "The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat", written by Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson agreed to have it optioned without seeing a screenplay figuring that the film would never get made, as the vastly more popular "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" had been optioned several times and was never made. In 1978, Art Linson, who had previously produced four films, started planning to make the film, which would be his directorial debut. Thompson remembered, "Then all of a sudden there was some moment of terrible horror when I realized they were going to make the movie". Linson asked illustrator Ralph Steadman to create a poster for the film in the style of the illustrations he had done for Thompson's articles. He used a drawing titled "Spirit of Gonzo" as the basis.