Trivia

Sylvester Stallone originally developed the screenplay as an instalment of his Rambo film series.

James Franco adopted the cat from the film, and also adopted his double.

The screenplay is an old project of Sylvester Stallone. It was written many years before but it was never realized and then abandoned due to his age. It came back into fashion when Jason Statham showed interest.

This was only the second movie that Sylvester Stallone had a hand in the making of as a (director, producer, or writer) that he didn't appear in. (Screenplay written by Sylvester Stallone.) The other, in 2002 was the film "MVP" in which he was Executive Producer. Also, for television, in 1973 he wrote the second episode of the first season of the series "Heat to Heart' which he did not appear in, in 1985 he was the executive producer of the TV movie "Heart of a Champion: The Ray Mancini Story" that he did not appear in and in 2002 he was executive producer and writer for the unsold CBS pilot "Father Lefty" which, again , he did not appear in.

Dolph Lundgren loved the script and was interested in doing it.