This Movie Was So Bad, Even Morgan Freeman Couldn’t Hide His Regret

Morgan Freeman knew he was in trouble the moment the script read-through ended. He had already signed the deal and committed to the role and was set to play a stern military figure in Dreamcatcher, a sci-fi mess based on Stephen King’s book. The catch was that he was not doing it for the love of the story or the thrill of the character, but for the money, plain and simple.

The Dreamcatcher Script Was a Warning Sign

The film was already circling the drain before the cameras started rolling. Whatever Freeman might have thought of the script beforehand, the real trouble set in during the cast read-through. According to Far Out Magazine, during the first full read-through with the rest of the star-studded cast, including the likes of Thomas Jane, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, and more, the problems became evident. The session dragged and the story kept getting more tangled and by the end of it, Freeman was done. He closed his script and summed up what everyone else was thinking, even if no one wanted to say it out loud.

Stephen King Adaptation Gone Completely Wrong

The first full read was a red flag and for someone with experience adapting King’s work, especially something as respected as The Shawshank Redemption , it must have felt like stepping into a different universe and not in a good way.