Wesley Snipes replaced Bruce Willis in the lead role of Detective Harlan Regis after Willis withdrew from the movie.
The official trailer for the film contained prominent scenes and dialogue that were removed before it was released in theaters. Among these excised items were: Wesley Snipes's Detective Harlan Regis character arrives at the White House via a helicopter at night; He then says the crime occurred "at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue--an address that changes all the rules"; and Daniel Benzali's Secret Service Director Agent Nicolas "Nick" Spikings tells Snipes, "You were born to become a chalk outline". These former scenes were cut when the filmmakers decided they were too over-the-top, not to mention, in the helicopter-arrival case, something that would never be remotely possible in real life. The scene between Snipes and Benzali was removed because it wrongly made Benzali look like an evil character and a major villain, when the film's story-line makes it clear he is an honest agent who is opposed to Snipes' presence because he feels it undercuts the Secret Service's job of solving the murder mystery.
Love scenes between Wesley Snipes and Diane Lane were some of the scenes which were cut from the film, apparently because it was felt that their characters interracial romance didn't work.
Wesley Snipes was originally going to do another film instead of this one. In December 1995 Warner Bros. signed $10 million contract with Snipes to star in one of their upcoming movies, an action adventure thriller titled Sandblast. It was based on 1993 spec script by Steven Maeda which he sold to them and producer Joel Silver for $750,000. Eddie Murphy was originally going to star in the film but he quit due to scheduling conflicts. Sandblast was going to be about former specialist and landmine expert who joins the US commando team to track down lost nuclear warheads which are lost somewhere in deserts of post-war Iraq. Besides the dangers of desert wasteland, his team would have to fight against the team of evil Green Berets who are also looking for the warheads, and they would all have to deal with huge sandstorm which makes their search lot more difficult. Jean Claude Van Damme was going to play the main villain and leader of Green Berets. Although the pre-production on Sandblast was almost over and production was to start, Warner Bros. cancelled the film due to concerns about box office potential of Snipes and Van Damme and some other problems.
The quotation of former U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt) that National Security Adviser Alvin Jordan (Alan Alda) quotes says: "If I must choose between righteousness and peace . . . I choose righteousness".