the novel "fortress" by gabrielle lord was inspired by the 1972 faraday primary school kidnapping of an isolated rural single teacher school and was influenced by william golding's 1954 novel "lord of the flies". at one stage it was thought the novel would be filmed by murdoch and stigwood's r & r films as a follow up to "gallipoli" (1981). however this never eventuated. the film rights were purchased by crawford productions who intended to make a feature film for local release and a telemovie for hbo in the us. half the budget was from hbo who insisted the lead be played by an actress who was familiar to the american public.