Speaking of Morgan Freeman, I bought and viewed the 10th anniversary special edition DVD of The Shawshank Redemption today. Excellent release, with lots of great extras. A few things I learned:
- One of the reasons Darabont changed the title from "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" was that they were actually getting resumes coming in from actresses who wanted the role of Rita Hayworth, thinking that it was a biopic. The agent of an unnamed supermodel, who was trying to branch out into acting at the time, actually told the producers that she thought that the script was the best thing she'd ever read, and that her client would be perfect as Hayworth.
- The "silent silent partner," Randall Stevens, was Peter Stevens in the novella, but because there was a prominent accountant in LA named Peter Stevens, Darabont decided to change the name. He picked "Randall" as a reference to another Stephen King character, Randall Flagg.
- One of the biggest things that Darabont emphasizes in the commentary is the work of the production designer, who he feels was unfairly shut out of an Oscar nom. The prison they used was in horrible shape inside, so the production team had to practically rebuild a lot of the interiors. Also, the cell block was a completely soundstaged set, created at a warehouse a few miles from the prison in Ohio.
There are two very good docs on the second disc, as well as a recent Charlie Rose segment with Darabont, Freeman, and Robbins, and a fairly amusing parody called "The Sharktank Redemption" starring Freeman's son (who posed for Red's mug shots in the feature film, as well as appeared as one of the taunting convicts in the opening scene, "reeling in" the fresh fish).