After the movie was released, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas's own father Istvan Eszterhas was accused of war crimes in Hungary by printing anti-Semitic editorials and even organizing a book burning.
Both Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthau wanted to play the father (Michael Laszlo) and were in contact with director Costa-Gavras. He picked Armin Mueller-Stahl for the part, who a couple of years earlier had said he would love to work with Costa-Gavras after seeing his movie Missing (1982) at the theater.