following the critical and commercial success of "being there" (1979), peter sellers had a chance meeting with an arms dealer during an air flight that inspired him to contact southern and ask him to write a script on the subject of the shady world of the international arms trade. the resulting screenplay, "grossing out", was reputed to have been of high quality, and hal ashby was provisionally attached as director, but the project went into limbo after sellers' sudden death from a heart attack on 24 july 1980.