Following his initial, unsuccessful venture into film, Stone was considerably more cautious with the film version of Dog Soldiers, grievously retitled as Who'll Stop the Rain (produced by United Artists, directed by Karel Reisz, adapted by Stone and Judith Rascoe, and released in 1978). The film, starring Michael Moriarty, Nick Nolte, and Tuesday Weld, received critical acclaim but was only mildly successful at the box office. Most critics commented that despite an action-packed sequence of events and moving performances, especially by Weld, the film was flawed in relation to continuity and character development. Creating unsympathetic and overtly unappealing characters seemed to present insurmountable consequences for the film.