Did John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton immediately come to mind for the lead roles?
John was the producers’ first thought. When they optioned the novel, they were thinking John Cusack. Billy Bob was a great idea that came up right away. John had turned this down once before when another director was attached…and I think it had gone out to Billy Bob at the same time. Maybe for the other role. Maybe for John’s role. I don’t know. People had flirted with this material. It was not a very long time. It probably wasn’t more than two years from the time the screenplay got written to the time the movie got made. But when I came into it, John and I had a bit of a relationship. We had never worked together, except as actors for one day. And it was offered to him again. They revisited that with his agent, and when he heard I was involved, he got right on the phone and we talked about, “Why do this movie?” And I think I satisfied him that I had a vision of it. I thought it had moral purpose and was an important film to make, and he came on board. And then Billy Bob came in with
