Steve Barancik wrote the first draft of the screenplay, in 1997, which Scott rejected. A second script was written by Roger Avary, but was also rejected by Scott. Scott described the two rejected screenplays as conventional biopics of Domino Harvey's life, which was not what he had in mind. Finally, Richard Kelly was asked to write the screenplay after Scott read his script for "Southland Tales". Kelly was sent transcripts of Domino Harvey's interviews with Tony Scott, but he did not read the scripts that Scott had rejected. In discussing the finished product, Kelly commented that "...Domino might be one of the most subversive films released by a major studio since "Fight Club"".