Joe Eszterhas wrote the screenplay with Jane Fonda in mind to play the female lead. Eszterhas and producer Irwin Winkler wanted to cast Fonda, but Costa-Gavras thought that she was too old for the part, and cast Jessica Lange instead. Fonda was paid $1.25 million in compensation for losing the part.
After the movie was released, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas' own father, Istvan Eszterhas, was accused of war crimes in Hungary for printing anti-Semitic editorials, and even organizing a book burning. When Istvan admitted the charges were accurate, Joe responded by publicly condemning his father, and disowning him as a parent, later writing that he never reconciled with Istvan, and refused to let him see his grandchildren right up to the point where Istvan died of natural causes.
Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthau wanted to play the father (Michael Laszlo), and were in contact with director Costa-Gavras. Costa-Gavras also considered Marlon Brando for the part. Instead, he picked Armin Mueller-Stahl, who a couple of years earlier had said he would love to work with him after seeing his movie, Missing - Scomparso (1982), at the theater.
Costa-Gavras came up with the film's title. Joe Eszterhas' original screenplay was entitled "Sins of the Fathers".
The Hungarian social club dance party that opens the film and the restaurant scene between Ann Talbot and Jack Burke, although set in Chicago, were both filmed in Budapest.