August 12, 1983, #00004, 8/31/83. This is the Walter Hill/Joel Silver production draft that went out to the production staff. Walter Hill played a big role in reducing and focusing the screenplay.

There are new blue and pink pages with a revised ending. This draft is the essential draft that final film was ultimately based upon.

Universal Studios began building sets to go into production. As I was told, the studio and Walter Hill got into a disagreement about the budget. They thought it was too expensive. Mr. Hill was shooting STREETS OF FIRE on the lot at that time and Mr. Hill was going to go right into DICK TRACY. The production was shut down.

The other story about why production was shut down was that Mr. Hill and Warren Beatty meet and Mr. Beatty asked if Mr. Hill allows his actors to see dailies. Mr. Hill reportedly said that he didn’t believe in actors seeing dailies and Mr. Beatty was suddenly not interested in playing the role. Without a strong actor, the project shut down.

The worldwide rights, at that time, was owned by both Universal Studios and Paramount Studios. The project moved over to Paramount and Director Richard Benjamin was brought on board.