Matt Harris wrote this screenplay, originally titled "Moon of Popping Trees", in 2000. It won the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting in 2002. However, Harris was unable to sell it, and it languished until his first produced screenplay, The Starling (2021), renewed interest in it.
In a 2022 interview with Film Comment, Walter Hill explained the look of the film: "My own experience in northern Mexico, in Chihuahua, is that you're always conscious of the sun blazing away. I wanted the feeling of constant sunshine. It should look parched."
Willem Dafoe (Joe Cribbens), and Benjamin Bratt (Vargas), starred together in Clear and Present Danger (1994).