the film was originally produced so that dino de laurentiis could inject some quick cash into his long gestating project "total recall", a film for which laurentiis had owned the rights, and one in which schwarzenegger would later take the leading role. partly due to the poor box office performance of "raw deal", de laurentiis would eventually file for bankruptcy and the rights to "total recall" were sold to carolco. at the time, schwarzenegger was still under contract with de laurentiis for a number of "conan the barbarian" sequels, and in exchange for dissolving this multi-picture agreement, schwarzenegger agreed to star in "raw deal". initially, schwarzenegger was more interested in doing "total recall" but de laurentiis objected as he didn't feel that schwarzenegger was right for the leading role. patrick swayze was cast before de laurentiis' bankruptcy.