The Untold Truth Of The Shawshank Redemption

Following a modestly successful release in 1994, The Shawshank Redemption has gone on to become one of the most beloved and acclaimed movies ever made. It often sits at number one atop IMDb's list of the top 250 movies of all time (as voted on by users), outranking even The Godfather, Schindler's List, and The Dark Knight. With performances for the ages from Tim Robbins as quiet, new inmate Andy Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as wizened lifer Red, it's a simply told, deeply affecting drama set in the imposing Shawshank prison. But at its core, this is a film about the impossibility of caging the human spirit. It's a movie about hope. So get busy livin', or get busy readin' these little known facts about The Shawshank Redemption.

While many filmmakers have put Stephen King's stories onto celluloid, the author hasn't always been a fan of these adaptations. For example, he disliked Stanley Kubrick's 1980 version of The Shining, finding Kubrick's characterization of Wendy (Shelley Duvall) to be misogynistic. Nevertheless, he encourages new filmmakers to adapt his work by offering young directors the rights to his short stories for just one dollar.

In the early 80s, Frank Darabont paid his buck to adapt "The Woman in the Room." He then gained some screenwriter cred by writing films like A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 and 1988's The Blob. Bolstered by his success in the business, Darabont approached King again, only this time asking about Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Evidently, King enjoyed Darabont's take on "The Woman in the Room" so much that he sold the Shawshank rights for a mere $1,000. However, King never even cashed the check. Instead, he had it framed and gave it back to Darabont as a gift.

Though he wouldn't be directing the movie, Rob Reiner did have a hand in the casting, offering the role of Andy to none other than Tom Cruise. The two had worked together in 1992's Oscar-nominated A Few Good Men, with Cruise playing the lead and Reiner calling the shots behind the camera. While the superstar was definitely intrigued by the project, he didn't want to work with such an inexperienced director like Darabont, saying he'd only take the part if Reiner was running the show. After Cruise passed, the role was offered to the likes of Tom Hanks, Kevin Costner, and Nicolas Cage, all of whom said no. Eventually, the part made its way to Tim Robbins, and now, it's pretty much impossible to see anyone else in the movie.

Another huge movie star almost showed up in The Shawshank Redemption, and in a supporting role. Gil Bellows, best known for his work on Ally McBeal, made one of his earliest appearances in Shawshank, as illiterate, sideburns-sporting inmate Tommy. According to Entertainment Weekly, Bellows got the part when the other young actor originally cast — Brad Pitt — had to leave due to a scheduling issue.

When it comes to long titles, The Shawshank Redemption is a bit of a mouthful. Of course, the name could've been a whole lot longer, as King's novella was called Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. But why did the first three words get cut out of the title? Well, Darabont didn't change it for linguistic reasons. Instead, he altered the name because he didn't want to mislead casting agents—or actresses—into thinking it was a biopic on '40s movie star Rita Hayworth. (Hayworth's main "role" in the film is as a poster covering up Andy's secret tunnel out of prison.) Early on in the production process, Darabont says he received a bunch of resumes and headshots from actresses interesting in playing the "title role," as well as an agent who represented a supermodel trying to get into acting. "That told us how carefully that agent had read the script," Darabont later said, "and how much hot air floats around Hollywood from time to time."

Nevertheless, when the film hit theaters in Finland, the local distributor released it under a title similar to the source novella — and which revealed a major plot twist. The title? Rita Hayworth: The Key to Escape.

One of the reasons The Shawshank Redemption is such a classic is because plays on TV a lot. Like a whole lot. So why is Shawshank so popular on the small screen? Well, a year before Castle Rock Entertainment produced The Shawshank Redemption, cable TV tycoon Ted Turner bought the company as part of an effort to provide his channels with programming. When the TV rights for Shawshank became available, Turner took the movie and made it part of TNT's "New Classics" campaign, which is probably why it seems like The Shawshank Redemption is on TNT all the time. In fact, if you look at the numbers, you'll discover that in 2013, Shawshank aired on cable for a jaw-dropping total of 151 hours. So if you turn on your TV right now, there's a good chance you'll see Tim Robbins standing in the rain.

At the end of The Shawshank Redemption—after Andy and Red reunite, and we're all wiping away tears—there's still one last moving moment. It's a dedication that reads, "In memory of Allen Greene." So who is this guy exactly? Well, on the director commentary track on the Shawshank DVD, director Frank Darabont explaines that Greene was his first-ever agent.

As Darabont explained, in the '80s, he was "a set dresser on low-budget movies who wanted to be a writer, and it's very hard to get an agent to believe in you on that level." But when Darabont met Greene, he discovered a friend and an ally. Sadly, Greene died of complications from AIDS right before Shawshank started filming, and that's why the director decided to pay his friend tribute. "I wanted to acknowledge not just his significance to my career," Darabont said, "but also that he was an incredibly decent, much-loved, and much-missed person in the lives of those who knew him."

When shooting began on The Shawshank Redemption, director Frank Darabont had previously helmed just one full-length film: the 1990 made-for-TV horror movie Buried Alive. And there he suddenly was, with his creative vision, trying to lead a massive film production and trying to give orders to people with much more experience than his own — like director of photography, with whom he frequently butted heads. While Darabont wanted lots of grand, sweeping shots of the massive prison's exterior, Deakins disagreed. "It's nice not to see outside the prison," Deakins argued in Entertainment Weekly. "It adds claustrophobia, so when we go wide, it's a much bigger statement."

Darabont also clashed with star Morgan Freeman. They had different ideas about the scene during which Andy and Red find each other in Mexico. "Frank thought I should be blowing that harmonica that Andy gave me. And I refused," Freeman told the New York Daily News, because he thought it was "sort of asinine, sort of cliched, sort of unnecessary." Freeman also refused when Darabont would ask for what the actor considered to be too many extra takes. "The answer was no," Freeman told Vanity Fair. "Acting itself isn't difficult. But having to do something again and again for no discernible reason tends to be a bit debilitating to the energy."

There aren't a lot of animals in The Shawshank Redemption. Along with some rats, there's Jake, the pet crow of prison librarian Brooks, who steals the handful of scenes in which he appears (especially the first one, when Brooks introduces Andy Dufresne to the bird, which he's hiding in his jacket). Andy finds a maggot in his jailhouse grub and offers it to Jake, who happily eats it. The Shawshank Redemption received the coveted "No animals were harmed during the making of this film" credit, a seal of critter-friendly approval from the American Humane Association. It even oversees how bugs are treated. Had Tim Robbins, in his role as Andy, fed a live maggot to Jake the bird, the AHA wouldn't have signed off on the film. The prop department worked out a solution: The maggot was fake, constructed out of baby food.

First it was a book, then it was a movie, and eventually, The Shawshank Redemption became a play, too. U.K. comedians Owen O'Neill and Dave Johns took a stab at serious dramatic work in 2009, adapting the original Stephen King novella for the stage, sidestepping the movie version completely. As such, it sometimes doesn't line up with the film — sequences invented for the movie didn't make it to the stage version, and in the limited world of the theater, there are no scenes set outside of the prison. (However, Andy's brutal assault in the showers made the jump.)

The play made its world premiere at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, in 2009, before heading to London's West End (the Broadway of England) for a short run later that year. Reg. E Cathey, best known for his work on The Wire, House of Cards, and the prison show Oz, played Red. Unfortunately, critics didn't much enjoy this version of Shawshank. "Lacking the movie's excursions into the outside world and any sense of moral equivocation, the play, in the end, is The Shawshank Reduction," said The Guardian's Michael Billington.