Les Évadés: why Frank Darabont absolutely wanted to recruit Morgan Freeman

Frank Darabont’s successful first feature film is rebroadcast this Sunday evening on 6ter.

We learned a few months ago that Frank Darabont was coming out of retirement to direct two episodes of the final season of Stranger Things. News that delighted his fans, especially those of Escapeeshis cult film released in theaters 30 years ago.

In the United States, this drama based on an equally noted work by Stephen King was released precisely in September 1994. To wait before its rebroadcast this evening on 6ter, here are three things to know about The Escapees.

Adaptation of a short story by Stephen King

Released in 1994The Escapees depicts a great story of friendship behind bars between two men who should never have met: a young banker sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife which he denies having committed and a black fifty-year-old, disillusioned and imprisoned for twenty years. It’s about adaptation by Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemptiona short story by horror master Stephen King from the collection Different seasonspublished in 1982 and which greatly inspired the big screen. In 1986, Rob Reiner had indeed seized the Body became Stand by me. Before in 1998, Bryan Singer adapted A gifted student.

Rob Reiner: “Stand By Me is the film that means the most to me”

A story of friendship

Frank Darabont signs with The Escapees his first feature film. But this wasn’t his first encounter with Stephen King. For his debut in short films in 1983 with The woman in the roomhe had in fact chosen to bring his short story to the screen Room 312. And it was his enthusiasm for the result that pushed the writer to give him the rights to Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption for only 1000 dollars. Rob Reiner offered Darabont 2,500,000 to bring it to the screen himself. But Darabont, until now specialized in scripts for sequels and remakes of horror classics (Freddy 3, The Fly 2, The Blob) declines and decides to take charge of the production himself.

The result thrilled the writer who simply considered it the best adaptation of his work… and returned his uncashed check to Darabont a few months after the release of the Escapees. This winning duo will strike again very hard five years later to The Green Line.

An eventful casting

Many actors aspired to play the two main performers of these Escapees. Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Nicolas Cage and Robert Redford were respectively considered to play Dufresne. Tom Hanks (whom Darabont will direct in The Green Line) was on the verge of doing so, just like Kevin Costner, but both had to decline, caught up in the respective filming of Forrest Gump And Waterworld.

And this is how Tim Robbins, buoyed by his Cannes acting prize and his Golden Globe for The Player took over the role. As for Red, described in King’s short story as a red-haired Irishman, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman and Robert Redford expressed their interest. But from day one, Darabont had only one name in mind: Morgan Freeman. For his charisma and his voice. And so he ignored any question of skin color to entrust him with this role.

Morgan Freeman pays tribute to his French voice, Benoît Allemane