James Ellroy wrote the screenplay in the mid-1990's inspired by the O.J. Simpson trial. Over the years, Spike Lee, David Fincher, and Oliver Stone were attached to direct the film at various stages of pre-production. Sean Penn was once attached to star. John Ridley contributed to an early version of the screenplay. Belgian director Erik Van Looy was set to direct this film according to various interviews, but these plans were scrapped in preproduction, upon which Van Looy went on to direct Loft (2008/I) in his home country.
As Ludlow walks out of his impromptu meeting with Diskant he says "Harry, I thought you were dead" to an unseen Detective seated at a desk. This is in reference to Keanu Reeves' film _Speed (1994)_, which was also based in LA, in which his character Jack Traven was partnered with Detective Harry Temple (played by Jeff Daniels) who was killed in a bombing.