Editing In the Line of Fire (section)

==Production==
[[File:Bonaventurehotel.jpg|thumb|220px|The climax of the film occurs at the [[Westin Bonaventure Hotel|Bonaventure Hotel]], Los Angeles]]

Producer Jeff Apple began developing ''In the Line of Fire'' in the mid-1980s. He had planned on making a movie about a Secret Service Agent on detail during the Kennedy assassination since his boyhood. Apple was inspired and intrigued by a vivid early childhood memory of meeting Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in person, surrounded by Secret Service Agents with earpieces in dark suits and sunglasses. The concept later struck Apple as an adolescent watching televised replays of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

After another writer's efforts fell short,<ref name=hwr>{{cite news|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/clint-eastwood-in-the-line-of-fire-1235953283/ |title=Hollywood Flashback: When Clint Eastwood Saved the Day |work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |first=Ryan |last=Gajewski |date=July 29, 2024}}</ref> Jeff Maguire came aboard in 1991 and completed the script that would become the movie.<ref name="Turan">{{cite news |date=July 9, 1993 |last=Turan |first=Kenneth |author-link=Kenneth Turan |title='Fire' lines up a worthy villain for Clint |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-09-ca-12845-story.html |access-date=February 23, 2021 }}</ref> Disney rejected a treatment for TV starring [[Tom Selleck]], and after a bidding war [[Castle Rock Entertainment]] bought the script for $1.4 million in April 1992.<ref name=hwr/><ref name="Eller">{{cite web |date=13 July 1993 |author=Claudia Eller |title='In the Line of Fire': Whose Movie Is It, Anyway? : Movies: Columbia Pictures bankrolled the Castle Rock production, but there is disagreement over just how much creative credit the studio can claim. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-13-ca-12681-story.html |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] }}</ref>

[[Clint Eastwood]] and [[Wolfgang Petersen]] offered the role of Leary to [[Robert De Niro]], who turned it down due to scheduling conflicts with ''[[A Bronx Tale]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Crocker |first=John |title=MOVIE FEATURE: 10 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT... ROBERT DE NIRO |date=22 September 2011 |publisher=[[Red Bull]] |url=http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/10-Things-You-Might-Not-Know-About...-Robert-De-Niro-021243089465344 |access-date=15 June 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150530133348/http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/10-Things-You-Might-Not-Know-About...-Robert-De-Niro-021243089465344 |archive-date=May 30, 2015 }}</ref>

Filming began in late 1992 in Washington, D.C.<ref name="Hughes80"/> Scenes in the White House were filmed on an existing set, while an [[Air Force One]] interior set had to be built at a cost of $250,000.<ref name="Hughes80"/> The film's climactic scenes were shot inside the lobby and elevators of the Los Angeles [[Bonaventure Hotel]], while earlier scenes of Frank and Lilly sharing intimate moments were filmed in the nearby [[Millennium Biltmore Hotel|Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel]].

A subplot of the film is the President's re-election campaign. For the scenes of campaign rallies, the filmmakers used digitally altered footage from the campaign events of President [[George H. W. Bush]] and then-Governor [[Bill Clinton]].<ref name="Hughes80"/><ref name="Galbraith" />{{r|usss2}}

The movie also inserted digitized images from 1960s Clint Eastwood movies into the Kennedy assassination scenes. As Jeff Apple described it to the ''Los Angeles Times'', Eastwood "gets the world's first digital haircut".<ref name="Galbraith">{{cite news |date=July 11, 1993 |last=Galbraith |first=Jane |title=A look inside Hollywood and the movies 'Line of Fire' Gives Crowd Control a New Meaning |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-11-ca-11951-story.html |quote=special effects on the film, and were estimated to cost as much as 10% of the movie’s $40-million production budget |access-date=February 13, 2021 }}</ref>

The Secret Service cooperated with the production. An agency public affairs official said, "the project would have been done anyway ... We decided that it would be better for us to have some kind of control".<ref name="usss2">{{Cite report |url=https://www.governmentattic.org/58docs/USSSmovieInTheLineOfFireNoDate.pdf |title=The Making of "In the Line of Fire" |pages=18-23 |access-date=2025-05-01 |via=governmentattic.org FOIA request}}</ref> The agency did not cooperate with contemporary films ''[[Dave (film)|Dave]]'' and ''[[Guarding Tess]]'', describing the former as "whimsical".<ref name="usss1">{{Cite report |url=https://www.governmentattic.org/58docs/USSSmovieInTheLineOfFireNoDate.pdf |title=The U.S. Secret Service -- Have We "Gone Hollywood?" |pages=12-17 |access-date=2025-05-01 |via=governmentattic.org FOIA request}}</ref> For ''In the Line of Fire'', in addition to helping the [[second unit filming]] of the Bush and Clinton campaigns, Secret Service agents on the set helped scenes' authenticity. The agency concluded that "the project has been a great success. The Secret Service was able to ... make certain that our portrayal on the big screen was a positive one", and hoped that it would help in recruiting akin to "what ''[[Top Gun]]'' did for the Navy". Retired Assistant Director of the Secret Service Robert R. Snow said, "It's a story told through the eyes of an agent, his problems, and his experiences".{{r|usss2}}

In an interview with Larry King, President Bill Clinton praised the film. Unsure if this endorsement would help or hurt the film, Petersen decided against using his quotes to market the film.<ref name="afi" /><ref>{{cite web |date=July 25, 1993 |title=CLINTON GETS CLIPPED AS FILM CRITIC |url=https://buffalonews.com/1993/07/25/clinton-gets-clipped-as-film-critic/ |website=The Buffalo News |quote=I thought Eastwood was terrific. . . . I liked the movie very much. . . . I think it was as realistic as it could be and still be a real rip-roaring thriller. }}</ref>