In early September 1941, George Cukor was announced as the film's director and Robert Taylor and Myrna Loy were announced as the stars. The entire project was scrapped by Warners and sold to MGM after numerous re-writes and rejections from the Production Code Administration. Shortly before the start of principal photography, Hollywood Reporter announced that Fred Zinnemann was to direct the picture and Gene Kelly was to co-star with Lana Turner.