 Producer Saul Zaentz first tried to make this film in 1965, only to  find that MGM owned the rights. He kept trying to buy them every  time there was an administrative change at MGM up until 1989 when  new studio heads Jay Kanter and Alan Ladd Jr decided that MGM would  not be making the film. Zaentz still had to pay $1.4 million for the  rights.