In the 1970s, Gus Van Sant began to write the script based on Shakespeare’s "Henry IV" (Volumes 1 and 2) and "Henry V", and later he saw John Rechy (John Rechy) In the novel "City of Night" published in 1963, he found that the description of street male prostitutes in the book was better than himself, so he shelved the script for many years
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In 1988, Van Sant, who was editing "Evil Night", met a street male prostitute named Michael Parker, who inspired Van Sant’s creative inspiration and became the hero of the film. For the character prototype, Parker also has a fellow friend named Scott, who Van Sant portrayed as a rich kid in the script and gave him the style of a portland street male prostitute
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While collecting information for the film, Van Sant met a man suffering from narcolepsy, so he thought of making Mike in the film always drowsy. After a director of 20th Century Fox had read the script, Van Sant changed the film’s dialogue to a more modern version
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Because the homosexual theme of the film may cause controversy, no producer was willing to vote for the film at first. After the two protagonists Phoenix and Reeves signed the contract, someone was willing to invest US$2 million to shoot the film, but because Phoenix was going to star in "Son Man Casts the Wrong Net", Van Sant had to postpone the filming for as long as 9 months. Investment intentions fell through. Producer Lori Parker immediately looked for partners, and finally New Line Films agreed to provide 2.5 million US dollars to support Van Sant's filming plan
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Some of the dialogue elements of Scott played by Keanu are derived from the first and second parts of Shakespeare's play "Henry IV" and "Henry V". Some of the lines of other actors are also directly taken from the drama dialogue
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