Hill was going to make "The Last Gun" with Larry Gordon but when the financing on the project failed to materialize, Gordon showed Hill a copy of the novel "The Warriors" by Sol Yurick. They took it to Paramount Pictures because they were interested in youth films at the time and succeeded in getting the project financed. Hill remembers "it came together very quickly. Larry had a special relationship with Paramount and we promised to make the movie very cheaply, which we did. So it came together within a matter of weeks."