Cannon considered teaming up Chuck Norris and Michael Dudikoff for the picture before Peter Weller and Robert Hays were chosen for the leads.
In a recent interview (March 1st 2014), Kurt Russell recalled a story where he went to Sylvester Stallone's house to discuss working on a film together. The script they were thinking of making was Fifty/Fifty. Ultimately Russell and Stallone decided to make Tango and Cash (then called The Set-Up).
Originally this was meant to be a project for Chuck Norris during his time contracted to Cannon Films.
Chuck Norris declined the lead role of Jake Wyer because he had made several action films in the jungle and wasn't keen on spending months in another one to shoot this film.