 When Burnett and Alison failed to find a Broadway producer, they sold the play to Warner Bros. for $20,000, considered a record for an unproduced play, especially by two unknown writers.A story editor, Irene Lee Diamond, had read it in manuscript in New York, and recommended it for "sophisticated hokum".Warner Bros. gave the script for adaptation first to screenwriter Casey Robinson, who worked on the romantic pairing of Rick and Ilsa; twin-brother screenwriters Julius and Philip Epstein, who worked on the overall structure and dialogue; and screenwriter Howard Koch, who worked on the politics.