 Originally, Cronenberg turned down the film because of a scheduling  conflict with the shooting of Total Recall for Dino De Laurentis. So  the producer hired Robert Bierman, and just when they were about to  go into production Bierman experienced a terrible family tragedy and  decided he couldnt make such a dark film. At about the same time,  Cronenberg realized that he and De Laurentis were not seeing eye to  eye and back out, leaving him free to direct this film.