There was a lot of heat on this project, and Rob was determined to direct it. He wanted Tom Cruise to star. This would have been coming off of A FEW GOOD MEN. They offered the screenwriter the moon, but there was a hitch: the writer wanted to direct his own script.

Castle Rock offered the writer a two-picture blind deal if he'd step aside and let Rob direct, but the writer had purchased the book his script was based on and sat on it for years. He said there was no way. He had to direct it.

Reiner thought about and in the end said, "We have to make this film." They agreed to let the writer direct the film and Rob would just be a producer on it. Which is how Frank Darabont ended up directing THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION.

Rob had to pick another project, even though he had his heart set on SHAWSHANK. He went with an adaptation of a book by his old friend Alan Zweibel. Yes, that's right. He made NORTH instead of SHAWSHANK.

By the time they finished NORTH, everyone in town knew there were problems. I was at the first test screening of the film and it was a disaster. Legendary. A veritable waterfall of walkouts. It was catastrophic for Reiner as a director.

A week later, Darabont had to show Reiner the first cut of SHAWSHANK, and he was terrified. He felt like there was no way it would end well. "All he's going to see is the film he could have made instead and everything I did wrong."

The day of the screening, Rob showed up to watch the film. It was just him in a room by himself, and Frank standing in the back, absolutely sick to his stomach with fear. Rob watched the whole thing without reacting at all. Silent. Frank just watched his back, sure it was a disaster.

The movie ends, Rob stands up, and Frank braces himself for the double-barreled shotgun blast. Rob walks up, tears all over his face, and says, quietly, "It's the best film Castle Rock has ever released. Good work." And then he left.

Class. Fucking. Act.

Rob Reiner was a capital-M Mensch. #RIP