After "Arthur" made Moore a huge star, he was unwilling to talk about committing to a film series. MGM/UA wanted a transition film if Edwards was to introduce a new character as the series' star. Using outtakes was, according to Edwards, a brilliant idea (shooting scripts for "Return", "Strikes Again", and "Revenge" demonstrate a great amount of comedic material from the three films that was left on the cutting room floor). Edwards had originally hoped to construct a "Citizen Kane"-esque narrative, with Clouseau having gone missing at the very beginning of the story, whilst the memories of the supporting characters would showcase the deleted or unused content. Unfortunately, MGM/UA refused to pay ITC the fee they were asking for the use of the "Return" outtakes, and Edwards fell behind schedule on shooting "Trail"/"Curse" (MGM/UA also ended up cutting both films' budgets considerably), with the result being that "Trail" failed to live up to its potential.