 The script was written principally by longtime Herzog production manager Walter Saxer, based on an idea from mountaineer Reinhold Messner, who Herzog had worked with in his documentary "The Dark Glow of the Mountains".Herzog, who usually writes his own screenplays, believes that the script was weak, especially the dialogue, and says that he does not consider "Scream of Stone" to be his film.The film has elements drawn from the history of the supposed first conquest of the summit of Cerro Torre in 1959, by the Italian climber Cesare Maestri and his partner, the Austrian Toni Egger, who died during the descent.