Making this film cost Columbia Pictures the opportunity to make one of the most successful films of the 1980s. Just as the film was set to go into production, Columbia executives learned that the film could not be made unless they got the authorization of Universal. The legal department determined that "Big Trouble" was a remake of Double Indemnity (1944), which the latter studio owned. Universal's then-current head was Frank Price, who formerly ran Columbia. He was willing to give Columbia the remake rights to "Double Indemnity" under one condition - they would give Universal the rights to a sci-fi script that had caught his fancy at Columbia that the current management was sitting on. The trade was successful. Columbia was able to make "Big Trouble," which bombed, while the sci-fi film they passed on to Universal, Back to the Future (1985), was a great success.
Writer-director Andrew Bergman wrote the screenplay and shot about a third of the film before leaving the production. Peter Falk then asked his friend John Cassavetes to take over as director. Cassavetes was reluctant, as he usually only directed his own scripts, but he agreed. Bergman was able to get his name removed from the credits, taking the pseudonym Warren Bogle for his writing credit.
Andrew Bergman's long-time producing partner Mike Lobell also took his name off the film, but took no pseudonym. This film has the very rare distinction of having no producer credit of any kind, something rarely seen on a feature from a major studio.
Robert Stack's real-life wife Rosemarie Stack played his on-screen wife in the film the pair portraying Winslow and Mrs. Winslow respectively.