 Alan Ladd, Jr., president of Fox, sent the script to Alan Parker, as the director was beginning pre-production on "Fame" (1980).After filming "Fame", Parker met with Goldman, and the two worked together to rewrite the script.Among the changes, they moved the story from New York City to Marin County, California, and retitled the script to "Shoot the Moon", a metaphoric title that references the move of "shooting the moon" in the card game Hearts.