After the success of their two previous productions Dark Mission: Evil Flowers (1988) and Countdown to Esmeralda Bay (1990), both directed by Jesús Franco, Eurociné and its boss Marius Lesoeur decided to beat the iron while it was still hot by producing this, which was intended to be a blockbuster but ended up being a bitter failure.
Undermined by post-production problems (such as unusable direct sound recordings), and handicapped by the withdrawal of its US buyer, the film did not see a release on VHS in France until the mid-90s.
Producers Marius Lesoeur and Daniel Lesoeur held director Jesús Franco responsible for the film's failure due to abandoning the ship during post-production.
The film had a troubled production and lead to the fall of Eurociné. It was also responsible for a lasting quarrel between director Jesús Franco and producers Marius Lesoeur and Daniel Lesoeur.
Mark Hamill and Sir Christopher Lee appeared in the Star Wars film franchise. Two of Lee's scenes in the movies are direct parallels to scenes in which Hamill appeared. Luke loses his hand to Darth Vader, while Vader, as Anakin, has his hand cut off by Count Dooku, played by Lee. Luke later defeats Vader by cutting off his robotic hand in their rematch, and is encouraged by Emperor Palpatine to kill him. Dooku similarly loses his hands to Anakin, who is encouraged by Chancellor Palpatine to kill him.