Sutter's Gold (never filmed) was one of three projects that Sergei Eisenstein suggested to Paramount who in 1929 paid the director to leave Russia and work for the studio. None of the three projects were filmed and Eisenstein was soon the subject of an anti-communist campaign leading the studio to end Eisenstein's contract. He remained in the U.S. long enough to find a sponsor in Upton Sinclair that led to the Viva la Mexico project.