to positive word of mouth prior to its release, Fox considered producing a Speed sequel, and officially announced plans after the film's initial box office success in the first week of its release. De Bont was contractually obligated to direct it, and was paid a reported $5–6 million salary. Even though their contracts did not obligate them to do so, Fox expected Reeves and Bullock to reprise their roles, and envisioned the follow-up film with Reeves and Bullock's characters as a married couple. Hundreds of ideas for a sequel were submitted to De Bont, all of which he turned down in favor of his own idea, based on a recurring nightmare he experienced about a cruise ship crashing into an island. Speed screenwriter Graham Yost had an idea for a film involving a boat, with a Vietnam War-era vessel loaded with weapons that would explode if its ammunition came in contact with water. He also had an idea for a story about a plane that has to fly through the Andes mountains, but cannot ascend above . Neither Yost nor Speed producer Mark Gordon were asked to participate in the sequel, although Yost received a "characters created by" credit and Gordon was credited as executive producer for Speed 2. Randall McCormick was hired to write the sequel in 1994 and received a story credit along with De Bont. McCormick and Jeff Nathanson collectively wrote the screenplay, working back from the idea based on De Bont's nightmare. Die Hard director John McTiernan claimed in 2001 that "the studio used most of the material we'd developed" for a potential Die Hard sequel and turned it into Speed 2, including "the ocean liner going on the beach." The storyline for that film had been abandoned because it was too similar to Under Siege. Prior to production, details about the film were kept secret, and De Bont refused to confirm rumors about the film taking place on a ship, although he did state that the sequel would be "funnier", while Speed 2 star Jason Patric said the sequel is a "very complex movie" and would have "bigger sequences." Speed 2 was produced by De Bont's production company, Blue Tulip, and he was one of the film's three co-producers along with Steve Perry and Michael Peyser. The director began working on pre-production prior to the release of his previous film, Twister (1996). For the cruise