The movie was filmed concurrently with its sequel, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986). Due to his film's lukewarm box office returns, the sequel went straight to video in most countries
Producer Menahem Golan actually wanted Kathleen Turner, who was coming off the hit film Romancing the Stone (1984), to star in this film. He said, "I want that Stone woman," and Sharon Stone was hired by mistake.
Richard Chamberlain has said in the years since this film that he felt he had been conned into doing it. He said that the film sold to him to get him on board bore little relation to how it turned out. He said that it was pitched as a big budget adventure film to rival the Indiana Jones movies, and when he was told who the supporting actors were and that legendary British director J. Lee Thompson was directing, it sold it to him completely. However once filming was underway, he became aware that severe compromises had been made with some poor special effects, unconvincing film sets, a co-star (Sharon Stone) who was not easy to get on with and a then 70-year-old director who was merely going through the motions.
Sharon Stone once remarked that her contribution to this film and its sequel, which was shot at the same time, consisted of "a bad hairdo running through the jungle". Her difficulties making the movies, along with the collapse of her first marriage, convinced her to work on Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987). She wanted to have some fun after a difficult period in her life. She said, "Hanging out with a gang of comedians, it was the best therapy".