This film was originally to be directed by
Michael Mann. Upon working on episodes of numerous TV shows during 1976-1978, Mann was given the chance to direct an episode of
Police Woman (1974) (
The Buttercup Killer (1977)). Impressed with his directorial work, ABC told Mann he could search through their archive of unproduced scripts to see if there was anything he wished to make as a Movie of the Week. Mann picked out the
Jeffrey Bloom script, Swan Song. He rewrote it and went into preproduction.
David Soul came on board as star and producer, and the film was set to go into production when Soul suffered a spinal injury. The project was put on hiatus, and Mann went back to find another script, eventually deciding on
Patrick J. Nolan's
The Jericho Mile (1979). When Swan Song went back into production in 1980, Mann wasn't involved in the project, and the script was rewritten by
Ron Koslow, although both Mann and Bloom still received writing credits
