 Woodward served as an uncredited technical adviser on the film; the screenplay was written by Earl Mac Rauch, whose previous writing credits included Martin Scorsese's "New York, New York" (1977) and the science-fiction comedy "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" (1984).Hired to direct the film was Larry Peerce, a film and television veteran who had directed his wife Marilyn Hassett in the films "The Other Side of the Mountain" (1975), "Two-Minute Warning" (1976), "The Other Side of the Mountain Part 2" (1978), and "The Bell Jar" (1979).Chiklis claimed it took the producers three years to cast the role of Belushi.