 William Monahan was brought to the attention of Ridley Scott by  Scotts associate, Liza Ellzey during filming of Scotts previous  film Matchstick Men with a script titled Tripoli, intended to be a  Russell Crowe vehicle. Scott had in mind of making a Holy Crusade  epic, and much of the ideas and metaphors from Tripoli (which was  ultimately shelved) were incorporated into the film. Incidentally,  Tiberias real name was Raymond of Tripoli.