Gene Hackman discovered Claude Miller's 1981 French thriller "Garde à vue" and became passionate about remaking it in English. However, studios deemed the film's subject matter—centring on child abuse and murder—too commercially risky, and Hackman struggled for years to secure funding or backing. His perseverance eventually paid off when Morgan Freeman expressed interest in starring alongside him, leading to the film's creation two decades after Hackman first encountered it.

The resulting film, titled "Under Suspicion" (2000), starred Hackman as a tax attorney suspected of murdering and sexually abusing two young girls, with Freeman playing the obsessive father who interrogates him throughout an overnight police investigation. Despite the duo's determination and Freeman's appreciation for the project's theatrical, stage-like quality, the film proved a commercial disappointment, grossing just $1.31 million worldwide against a production budget of $25 million and receiving only middling critical reviews.