Studios Can Be Right

Everyone loves a good "stupid studio intereference" story, but I'm just as fascinated as the instances, rare as they may be, of studios interering, and fighting the director/writer, and being right. One of my favorite stories Frank Darabont tells on the Shawshank Redemption commentary track is about how the studios insisted he change the ending. Scoff you might, as you think back to that perfect, beautifukl ending, but the first cut of the film, the ones test audiences saw, had a slightly different ending. The narration was the same, but the film ended on that shot of the bus driving off into the horizon - there was no dissole to Red finding Andy on the beach before the credits. Darabont was adamant that we didn't need to see the beach reunion, but the studio, and probably rightly, insisted that the audience needed that victory, needed to see that reunion and not have to assume it happened. And while reasonable minds may differ, I can easily see their point.



Until Whenever