<Li> Don McManus as Wiley, a prison guard . </Li> <Li> Dion Anderson as Head Bull Haig </Li> <P> Director Frank Darabont first collaborated with author Stephen King in 1983, on the short film adaptation of The Woman in the Room, after buying the rights from King for $1; a Dollar Deal policy King used to help new directors build a resume by adapting his short stories . After receiving his first screenwriting credit in 1987 for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Darabont returned to King with $5,000 to purchase the right to adapt Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, a 96 - page short story written by King as part of an attempt to explore new genres . Although King did not understand how the story, largely focused on Red contemplating his fellow prisoner Andy, could make for a feature film, Darabont believed it was "obvious". Five years later, Darabont wrote the script over an eight - week period . Darabont expanded on elements of King's story . Brooks, a minor character in the short story who originally dies in a retirement home, became a tragic character who eventually hangs himself . Tommy, who in the story trades his evidence exonerating Andy for transfer to a nicer prison, is instead in the screenplay murdered on the orders of warden Norton, who is himself an amalgamation of several warden characters in King's story . At the time, prison - based films were not considered reliable box - office successes, but Darabont's script was read by then - Castle Rock Entertainment producer Liz Glotzer, whose interest in prison stories and reaction to the script led her to threaten to quit if Castle Rock did not produce The Shawshank Redemption . </P> <P> Director and Castle Rock co-founder Rob Reiner also liked the script, and offered Darabont between $2.5 million and $3 million to allow Reiner to direct it himself . Reiner, who had previously adapted King's novella The Body into the 1986 film Stand by Me, planned to cast Tom Cruise as Andy and Harrison Ford as Red . Castle Rock offered to finance any other film Darabont wanted to develop . Darabont, citing growing up poor in Los Angeles, seriously considered the offer, considering it would elevate his standing in his industry and that Castle Rock could have contractually fired him and given the film to Reiner anyway . Darabont chose to remain director, saying in a 2014 Variety interview, "you can continue to defer your dreams in exchange for money and, you know, die without ever having done the thing you set out to do ." Reiner instead served as Darabont's mentor on the project . </P>

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