At the time of this film's release, Armand Assante said of it, "You can't do Mike Hammer today like you could 30 years ago. We're making a contemporary version of 'I, the Jury'. It's not a period piece. So the story not only had to be updated but changed around significantly, and so did the character of Mike Hammer. He's no longer an alcoholic, and he's not some dumb macho creep. He's a guy who fought in Vietnam and then came back to America and found the whole country in a shambles".
Bruce Willis had originally tested to be one of the villains, but director Larry Cohen told him to read some scenes as Mike Hammer. Cohen was instantly impressed and wanted to cast him as Hammer, but since he had committed to Armand Assante, Cohen couldn't give him the role. However, he did encourage him to continue acting, because he felt Willis had something special. Willis would become a major star a few years later with the TV series "Moonlighting" (1985) and the surprise blockbuster Die Hard (1988) soon after.
Richard T. Heffron replaced Larry Cohen as director. Cohen, also the screenwriter of the film, was originally hired to direct, but was replaced with television director Heffron by American Cinema Productions after just six days of shooting. Reportedly this was because the picture was one day over schedule and $100,000 over budget.
Larry Cohen initially offered the lead role of Mike Hammer and a producer credit to Clint Eastwood, with his production company Malpaso Productions producing.