 Screenwriter Larry Cohen (I) (qv) originally pitched the concept  of a film that takes place entirely within a phone booth to  Alfred Hitchcock (I) (qv) in the 1960s. Hitchcock liked the idea,  but he and Cohen were unable to figure out a plot reason for keeping  the film confined to a booth. Once the idea of a sniper came to  Cohen in the late 1990s, he was able to write the script in under a  month.