The film was directed by John G. Avildsen, director of Rocky (1976) and The Karate Kid (1984). Due to too much tampering of his work he asked for his name to be removed from the film. His real name appears in the end credits as the director of the film, but he is credited as "Danny Mulroon" on the poster, DVD case and beginning credits of the film.
In "The Films of John G. Avildsen: Rocky, The Karate Kid and Other Underdogs" book by Larry Powell and Tom Garrett, it's mentioned how Avildsen's original cut of the film, which was filmed between June 15 and August 15 of 1998 , was titled Coyote Moon. It was test screened to an audience and the screening went really well, at one point there was even standing ovation and Avildsen said how only other time it happened to one of his films was with Rocky (1976).
This version of the film also had more of a ambiguous and different tone, with some supernatural elements to it, like in original version of the scene where Eddie talks with Rhonda after Johnny dies, and she tells him how that's impossible because he already died ten years earlier. Danny Treyo said in one interview how originally his character was meant to be something like a guardian angel to Eddie, but that part of the story was some of the ones which were cut from the film.
Jean Claude Van Damme didn't like Avildsen's version of the film so he went and re-edited the film and cut it down to 95 minutes. Then it was shelved, and over a year later it was re-titled into Desert Heat and released straight to video in September of 1999. Avildsen's director's cut was never released, although he did have copy of his workprint he didn't get a chance to release it before his death, like he did with his director's cut/workprint of Rocky 5 (1990), and according to him he always felt that his Coyote Moon version of the film would have been more successful.
