In May 2013, an employee at the Calgary, Alberta landfill discovered some film negative in the mounds of trash. He looked closer, and found images of a man kneeling over a gruesome murder victim. Thinking it could be evidence of a crime, he submitted the negatives to the Calgary Police Services. After a short investigation, they recognized Dan Aykroyd, and contacted his agent for information, finally concluding that it was simply a discarded negative of 'Loose Cannons'. The investigation was immediately closed, and everyone had a good laugh. Aykroyd jokingly told TMZ: "The movie should have been left in the landfill where it belongs."
Paul Koslo replaced J.T. Walsh in the role of Grimmer. Walsh had been originally cast in this film but was fired after only two days of work. He had co-starred in Wired (1989), a sensationalized biography about John Belushi, and his involvement in the film upset Dan Aykroyd, who was a friend and frequent collaborator of Belushi. They had worked together a number of times, on 'SNL' on TV and in the pictures '1941', 'Neighbors' and the classic cult movie 'The Blues Brothers'.
Filmed from 17 July 1988 until 23 October 1988, but unreleased until 9 February 1990.
Andy Dick appears on the cover art and poster but is not in the movie. At the time Dick was getting a lot of work in print ads.
The working title of the film was "The Von Metz Incident".