When he was 18, Steve Bing went to see Admiral James Stockdale (Who later was Perot’s running mate) speak. Stockdale had spent years in a Vietnam POW camp, and was a genuine badass. After the speech, Steve asked him if he met the men who’d tortured him today, what would he do. 1

Stockdale told him he’d shake their hands, because they made him the man he was. Steve was so dazzled, he went off and wrote a screenplay, a fictionalized accounting of Stockdale’s POW experiences. He got it to some producers, who got Charlton Heston to attach to the project. 2

After a long quiet period, the producers called to tell him they’d had to go to Cannon Films for the financing, and that Heston was out. The part was now going to be played by Chuck Norris, and Steve was told, “You have to replace all the dialogue with karate.” 3

That script ended up being Missing In Action II, and that experience was where Steve’s tremendous empathy for the bullshit screenwriters endure came from. 4