After Columbia Pictures passed on the film, Burrows shopped the film around at every studio in Hollywood. Trying a new tactic, Burrows submitted the script with a different title and put it in a different colored binder. Despite these efforts, there were still no takers – even Universal Studios, the company who would eventually go on to produce and distribute it. Among the studios that rejected it between 1975 and 1981 were: New Line Cinema, Columbia, 20th Century Fox, United Artists, Warner Bros, AIP, General Cinema, CBS, EMI, Allied artists, NBC, Zanuck/Brown, Universal, Viacom, First Artists, MGM, Pathe, Paramount and Time Life Films. And this is just a partial list. Burrows credits Michael Douglas (who much earlier was considered for the lead) for having the foresight and wherewithal to get the film made.