In the early 1980s, within two weeks of signing with his first agent, American filmmaker Michael Almereyda was hired by Embassy Pictures to rewrite a script for "Mandrake the Magician". He told "Filmmaker" magazine that, upon receiving the assignment, he flew to New York City and checked himself into the Chelsea Hotel to work on the rewrite. Three weeks later, he emerged with a new draft, but by then the studio had changed heads, and, in as little time as his revision took, the project was dropped.