 Director Herzog, Werner (qv) was originally going to film the  story of _Woyzeck (1979)_ (qv) with his star S., Bruno (qv).  However, a few days before production, he decided that story  required Kinski, Klaus (qv) in the starring role. He told Bruno,  who responded that he had already taken vacation and a leave of  absence from his job in a steel mill. As a result, Herzog wrote this  film in 3 1/2 days, deliberately choosing a similar sounding title.