Based on a novella by Stephen King, Apt Puil depicts a high school student with a Nazi obsession as he blackmails a German World War II criminal. The student forces the old man to tell him stories of the concentration camps.

In order to convince King to give them the rights to the story, Bryan Singer sent him Brandon Boyce's screenplay and a copy of the then-unreleased film The Usual Suspects. King then agreed to let Singer make the film.

There had been a prior attempt to make Apt Pupil into a film in the 1980s. Both James Mason and Richard Burton were interested in the role of Kurt, but died before production began. Another production with Alan Bridges as director was started, but went over budget and had to be shut down. Stephen King has said that the scenes he saw from this original production were "really good."

Stephen King reacquired the rights to the novella in 1995; Singer and producer Don Murphy were quick to purchase them from King once they learned of this development.