Cummings decided to form his own production company with Frenke and Philip Yordan, which they called United California. (They originally called it United World, but it was too similar to another company's name.) In December 1946, it was announced that Cummings had signed an exclusive contract with United California Productions, and that his deal with Wallis was for one film a year for seven years. They announced "Bad Guy" from a script by Yordan. They were also going to do "Joe MacBeth" (which was ultimately made by others).