Mike Figgis based Leaving Las Vegas on a 1990 autobiographical novel by John O'Brien, who committed suicide in April 1994, shortly after finding out his novel was being made into a film.[3][4] Despite basing most of his screenplay on O'Brien's novel, Figgis spoke of a personal attachment with the novel. "Anything I would do would be because I had a sympathetic feeling towards it. That's why I did Mr. Jones, because I think manic-depression is a fascinating, sad, and amazing phenomenon. It's not a coincidence that some of the greatest artists have been manic-depressive[s]. That made it, to me, a fascinating subject that, alas, did not come out in the film