In 1980, Richter talked with producers Frank Marshall and Neil Canton about filming one of his screenplays. Out of this meeting, Canton and Richter formed their own production company and decided that Buckaroo Banzai would be the first film. Under their supervision, Mac Rauch wrote a 60-page treatment titled Lepers from Saturn. They shopped Mac Rauch's treatment around to production executives who were their peers, proposing that Richter direct it, but no one wanted to take on such unusual subject matter by two first-time producers and a first-time director. Canton and Richter contacted veteran producer Sidney Beckerman at MGM / UA, with whom Canton had worked before. Beckerman liked the treatment and introduced Richter and Canton to studio chief David Begelman. Within 24 hours, they had a development deal with the studio. It took Mac Rauch a year and a half to write the final screenplay; during this time, the Lepers from the treatment became Lizards and then Lectroids—from Planet 10. Much of the film's detailed character histories were taken from Mac Rauch's unfinished Banzai scripts.