Sir Sean Connery lost a major extended cameo role in Les Chariots de feu (1981) because this movie went over schedule.
Writer-director Peter Hyams handled the cinematography for most of this movie, while Stephen Goldblatt usually worked when there was something Hyams did not know how to do. Goldblatt was misleadingly hired by Hyams, who really wanted him to stand aside and do nothing, and to use him as a scapegoat for the Ladd Company in case anything went wrong while using the new IntroVision process. He was furious at being lied to and wouldn't have taken the job if he'd known Hyams' intentions at the outset, but stayed on in order to learn how to use IntroVision, and because as a young cinematographer with a sole prior feature credit, quitting the movie could have ruined his career. It is the only one of his movies whose wrap party he skipped.
One of the few movies to be released theatrically with the "Megasound" sound system format. Megasound was a movie theater sound system created by "Warner Brothers" in the early 1980s. It was used to enhance the premiere engagements of a handful of Warner Brothers movies. Theaters equipped for Megasound had additional speakers mounted on the left, right, and rear walls of the auditorium. Selected soundtrack events with lots of low-frequency content (thuds, crashes, explosions, et cetera) were directed to these speakers at very high volume, creating a visceral effect intended to thrill the audience.
The mining company is referred by the name "Con-Amalgamate". This is the same name given to the company that manufactured the defective life support system mentioned in Capricorn One (1978) (also written and directed by Peter Hyams). Con-Amalgamate is also the name of the company that Peter Boyle's character, Jack Mitchell, says that he works for in T.R. Baskin (1971).
Sir Sean Connery was given special permission to miss a morning's filming in order to film a minor but important additional scene for the movie Bandits, bandits... (1981) on a housing estate in nearby Slough (Connery was the one who had suggested to Time Bandits director Terry Gilliam some weeks previously that he appear in this extra scene and was determined to keep his word). Although the producers of Outland (1981) were not contractually obliged to let him do this they decided to give in to Connery's request as a gesture of goodwill and they were able to film around his absence using his stunt double. Connery reappeared after lunch and normal filming resumed.