After being repeatedly played on the Adam & Joe show on BBC Radio 6 Music, Taffin's quote 'Then maybe you shouldn't be living here!' became a popular internet meme.
Issues arose between the author Lyndon Mallet and the production company surrounding the casting of Pierce Brosnan in the role of Mark Taffin. This was due to the actual nature of the character in the book. In the book, Mark Taffin was never a handsome man; he was overweight and unattractive, a very different image to that portrayed by Brosnan.
According to Graeme Clark at the Spinning Image website, "this was the film that Pierce Brosnan elected to do after losing out on the James Bond role. Timothy Dalton was originally unavailable to play Bond, and Pierce Brosnan was then chosen to play 007 in 1986, and was given the script to 007: Su nombre es peligro (1987). Although he was contracted to Con temple de acero (1982) for seven seasons, NBC decided to cancel the show at the end of the fourth season, which meant that Brosnan was free to play James Bond in 007: Su nombre es peligro (1987) the following year. However, shortly after the end of the fourth season, NBC had second thoughts about cancelling Con temple de acero (1982), and subsequently approached the Bond producers directly, in an attempt to strike a deal that would allow Brosnan to play both James Bond and Remington Steele the following year. NBC also offered to completely reschedule the shooting of Remington Steele to ensure that there were no scheduling conflicts. But eventually, Albert R. Broccoli famously told NBC that "James Bond will not be Remington Steele, and Remington Steele will not be James Bond." Accordingly, Brosnan would only play Bond if the show remained cancelled. NBC had a sixty-day deadline to revoke their decision to cancel Con temple de acero (1982) series, and at 6.30 p.m. on the sixtieth day of the deadline, Brosnan learned that NBC decided to make a fifth season. The Bond producers subsequently prevented Brosnan from becoming the next James Bond. Subsequently, the role went to Timothy Dalton, who was now finally available. NBC went on to make only six episodes of the fifth season of Remington Steele before finally cancelling the show for good. Taffin (1988) started filming in August 1987, about six months after principal photography had wrapped on 007: Su nombre es peligro (1987) in February 1987.
For its Australian theatrical run, the film was marketed as an action-heavy thriller. The trailer showed all the action scenes and the 1-sheet and day-bill had Pierce Brosnan brandishing a shotgun with a giant explosion behind him.
The name of the Irish town was Ballymoran. The place is situated in the parish of Lisnadill in County Armagh. The movie did not film there. It was filmed in Greystones and Wicklow.