The film is a western re-telling of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson."[2] In 1972 Douglas said he would produce and direct it as well as star and that the script was by Sid Fleischman.[3] By May the cast included Mark Lester, Lesley Anne Down and Danny DeVito.[2] "I wanted to get back the old feeling of movies I experienced as a kid," said Douglas, "pirates, derring-do, people getting killed, but you don't see any blood."There's adventure, violence, and there's romance - a girl sings a romantic song while dreaming of a good looking guy.