Originally filmed as "The Exchange" but during post-production, Sony felt that people wouldn't get the subtle title. Sony wanted something that sounded more like an action film. A new title "Bloodstone" was selected. Sony even used this title to promote the film in several industry publications, but they ultimately felt that the new title lacked the urgency and excitement of a Jean-Claude Van Damme film. Ultimately "Maximum Risk" was selected.
After a string of successful theatrical action movies in the early 90s, "Maximum Risk" was one of the first movies starring Jean-Claude Van Damme to skip theaters and be released direct-to-video in many countries. This became the fate of most of van Damme's movies that came afterwards, with a few exceptions such as The Expendables 2 (2012).
Around May of 1996, while he was working on Maximum Risk, Warner Bros. offered Jean Claude Van Damme the role of main villain in their upcoming movie, an action thriller titled Sandblast. Described as both Die Hard (1988) and Cliffhanger (1993) in desert sandstorm, original spec script for it was written by Steven Maeda in 1993 who sold it to Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver that same year for $750,000. When the project first started in 1995, Eddie Murphy was originally going to play the lead role due to him wanting to do more serious action movie role, but eventually he left to star in Metro (1997), and in 1996 Wesley Snipes signed in to star in Sandblast for paycheck of $10 million.
The plot of the film would have been about ex-landmine expert and army specialist who joins up with team of commandos who are sent into the Iraq desert some time after the Gulf War to find lost nuclear warheads, and they have to do this while dealing with deadly terrain, huge sandstorm and team of traitorous Green Berets who are also looking for warheads, and Van Damme would play the leader of Berets. However, he refused to play the villain and he also didn't liked that his character would get killed in the end by Snipes' character, and despite studio already securing the budget, crew and some of the other cast for the film, it was ultimately cancelled due to this and some other problems during pre-production.
The plot of the film would have been about ex-landmine expert and army specialist who joins up with team of commandos who are sent into the Iraq desert some time after the Gulf War to find lost nuclear warheads, and they have to do this while dealing with deadly terrain, huge sandstorm and team of traitorous Green Berets who are also looking for warheads, and Van Damme would play the leader of Berets. However, he refused to play the villain and he also didn't liked that his character would get killed in the end by Snipes' character, and despite studio already securing the budget, crew and some of the other cast for the film, it was ultimately cancelled due to this and some other problems during pre-production.
It was Jean-Claude Van Damme's idea that Asian action director Ringo Lam direct this film, as his American directorial debut.