National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
The script was written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue who had written "Scrooged" (1988) for producer Art Linson. Linson had tried to get "Arrive Alive" made for a number of years, with a variety of stars attached, before finally securing funding with Chechik, Dafoe and Cusack. Cusack was an up-and-coming actress, working on "Saturday Night Live", Dafoe was getting terrific buzz from "The Last Temptation of Christ" and Chechik had just directed the successful "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation".