The original screenplay was written in 1992 and sold to 20th Century Fox in 1993. Harrison Ford was initially considered to play the lead with Sydney Pollack approached to direct. The production stalled when Eric Roth's subsequent screenplay for Forrest Gump (1994) recycled a similar plot device. The movie then languished in development hell for over twenty years.
The film was originally pitched with Denzel Washington as the lead. However, Washington withdrew from the role in order to perform in "A Rasin in the Sun" on Broadway, and was subsequently replaced by Bruce Willis.
M. Night Shyamalan wrote the original screenplay as a Valentine's day gift to his girlfriend (now wife) Bhavna Vaswani.
Expected to be the first collaboration between Nicolas Cage and M. Night Shyamalan
An early draft of this screenplay has been available online since the early aughts.