and Tower. The film was originally titled Trump Heist under this concept. A script was developed by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage and over the course of the next five years, the script was rewritten by several writers including Russell Gewirtz, Rawson Marshall Thurber, Ted Griffin, Leslie Dixon, Noah Baumbach, and Jeff Nathanson, with the bulk of the work – and credit – going to Griffin and Nathanson. On the development of the film, Grazer said "It's difficult to imagine that a casual conversation six years ago has grown into such a fully realized film that is so grand in scope. Plus, who could have known that, in this period of time, the global financial markets would teeter on the verge of collapse and the villain in our story would pale in comparison to some very real ones on Wall Street? Truth remains stranger than fiction." Rewrites of the script gradually moved away from the ensemble of comedians and began to focus on two central characters, at which point Murphy left the project. The modified script reminded Ratner of the Ocean's Eleven remake, a project he had developed but for which he was unavailable due to his commitment to directing Rush Hour 2. The project remained in development for a period of years but Ratner remained committed to the project, having enjoyed the heist films of the 1970s including The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Hot Rock, and The Anderson Tapes, turning down the opportunity to direct other films such as Horrible Bosses, which he instead produced. Ratner also wanted to work with Murphy, whom Ratner partially credited as inspiring his Rush Hour films. As the script began to be finalized, Murphy was drawn back into the much changed project after being informed of Stiller's participation, with Murphy being offered the role of Slide. Murphy rejoined as both a cast member and producer, alongside Grazer and Kim Roth. In late October 2010, the film was finally scheduled for release, being given a November 4, 2011, release date. Writing Feeling the original concept was too close to Ocean's Eleven, Ratner attempted to recruit Rush Hour screenwriter Nathanson to perform additional work on the Tower Heist script, but at that time Nathanson was unavailable. Ratner instead hired Griffin, a writer on the Ocean's Eleven remake. Griffin "brought the real motivation and the heart to the concept", moving away from the