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THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION was released 31 years ago today. One of the most popular films ever made, and among the greatest Stephen King adaptations, the making of story has as many secrets as a Rita Hayworth poster…

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In the early 1990s, filmmaker Frank Darabont was in a rut of “horror movie after horror movie” having written A Nightmare on Elm St 3, The Blob remake, and The Fly 2. Looking for a different challenge, he came across King’s Different Seasons, a short story collection.

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The tale which grabbed Darabont’s attention was Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption, a story of a fictional prison, a man who is wrongly jailed there for murder, and how he makes his escape.

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In 1984, Darabont had adapted King’s The Woman In The Room (King allowed student filmmakers to adapt his stories for $1). Impressed with Darabont’s student shot, King agreed to sell him the rights to his prison novella for a cut-price deal of $5000.

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Darabont completed his screenplay (calling it The Shawshank Redemption) and it immediately caused a stir in Hollywood. Filmmaker Rob Reiner’s production company Castle Rock won the bidding war and signed on to produce.

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Having already directed two King adaptations in Stand By Me and Misery, Reiner offered Darabont a whopping $2.5m to step away and allow him to direct.

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Darabont refused Reiner’s offer, later saying “this was my chance to do something great.” Darabont refused to sell his script unless he was given the chance to direct it too. Ultimately, Columbia Pictures struck a deal, with Darabont taking a pay cut to get the gig.

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The main character is Andy Dufresne, an innocent banker framed for murder. When Reiner was interested in the script, Tom Cruise was in the frame. When Reiner pulled out though, Cruise did the same.

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Other names considered included Jeff Bridges, Kevin Costner, and Nicholas Cage. Darabont then found the man he wanted, and offered the role of Andy to Tom Hanks. Due to scheduling conflicts with Forrest Gump, Hanks declined the offer.

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Darabont then went to the next name on his list, which was Tim Robbins. He had impressed Darabont in screen tests and was quickly was cast as Andy.

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Robbins did some prep for the role. Andy spends a lot of time in ‘the hole’, so Robbins did his research. He spent some time locked away in solitary confinement before production began.

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Andy also interacts with a bird (Jake, the pet of librarian, Brooks) in the film. As such, Robbins spent time with the bird so he could predict when it was going to squawk. This meant he could fit his lines around it.

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The second lead in the film is Andy’s fellow-inmate-turned-best-friend, Ellis Boyd Redding. Darabont wanted the part to have gravitas and considered huge Hollywood names like Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

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He settled on offering the role to Sidney Poitier – the first black man to win an acting Oscar – but Poitier said no, reportedly as he thought portraying a convicted murderer didn’t do a lot to further the image of the black man in Hollywood.

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Charlie Sheen was apparently so desperate to play Red that he called up an executive at Castle Rock and said, “I’ll do it for f***ing scale!” (an actor’s minimum wage). Sheen even offered to do a 30-minute showcase of himself as Red, but Darabont wasn’t interested.

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Instead, Darabont cast Morgan Freeman due to his “authoritative presence.” In the novel, Red is a white Irishman with red hair (hence the nickname). There is a nod to this in the film when Andy asks “why do they call you Red?” and Red says “Maybe cos I’m Irish.”

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The main villain of the piece if Warden Samuel Norton. Darabont wanted Bob Gunton from the get-go. He was making Demolition Man with a shaved head at the time so when he screen-tested, Gunton was give a wig to wear.

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The warden’s henchman is prison guard captain, Byron Hadley. Clancy Brown was cast after auditioning and turned down the chance to speak with real-life correctional officers, believing such a brutal character shouldn’t take inspiration from a real person.

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Another memorable character is Tommy Williams, a young burglar whose life Andy helps turn around. Darabont originally wanted to cast Brad Pitt in the role but he signed up for Interview With The Vampire instead. A such, Gil Bellows was cast.

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Darabont said that even though he took ‘Rita Hayworth’ out of the title, he received a phone call about from the agent of a famous supermodel who said “it’s the best script she’s ever read. She’d be perfect for the part of Rita Hayworth.”

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Darabont made other changes, too. In the book, Andy smuggles $500 into the prison up his bottom and pays other inmates to beat up Boggs. (the leader of The Sisters who assault Andy). In the film, it’s Hadley who paralyses Boggs.

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In the film, we don’t find out the crimes the characters are convicted of (except Andy) but the book tells us Red murdered his wife by disabling her brakes. The accident killed a neighbour and child as well. Brooks murdered his wife and daughter after losing at poker.

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In King’s, with the story spanning decades, there are actually 3 wardens who come and go. Darabont made the decision to combine them all into one – Warden Norton, played by Bob Gunton.

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In the film, Warden Norton has Tommy killed when he confirms he will be witness for Andy. In the book it plays out differently – Tommy isn’t shot by Hadley, he warden has him transferred to another prison.

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The Director of Photography, Roger Deakins, was reportedly recommended to Darabont by Robbins who had just worked with him on The Hudsucker Proxy. Deakin was Oscar-nominated for his work on Shawshank.

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There’s a recurring visual theme where the camera is in the dark and looking into the light. Deakins said this was to reflect the narrative them of hope, and also Andy being the light in the dark of the prison.

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The most famous shot is possibly after Andy escapes the prison and we get an overhead image of him standing in the rain. Deakins doesn’t like it, though. He said, “That’s one of those shots that I hate. I hate it because I over-lit it.”

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The music for was composed by Thomas Newman, though he wasn’t keen at first. When he saw the first cut of the film he was so impressed he said to Darabont “I can only make this worse.”

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One of the few change requests made by Darabont to Newman was around the So Was Red piece. It was written for an oboe but Darabont asked if it could be a harmonica (as Red plays one). Newman agreed and harp player Tommy Morgan nailed it in one take.

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The film is set in the classic Stephen King fictional town of Maine and production took place in Mansfield, Ohio. The Ohio State Reformatory, built in 1886 and closed in 1990, was used as Shawshank Prison.

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In one of the first scenes in the prison we see Hadley beat an inmate to death. The character is credited as Fat Ass and played by Frank Medrano. Jon Favreau also auditioned for the part, but said, “it was the worst audition I ever did.”

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Darabont makes two cameo appearances. In the opening we see Andy holding a revolver. There’s a close up of Andy’s hands, which are actually Darabont’s hands. We later see Andy scratching his name into the wall of his cell. Again, it’s Darabont’s hands we see.

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In handling the narration, Darabont said he took inspiration from Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, in which Ray Liotta provides a lot of voiceover. Darabont said that, during production, he watched Goodfellas every Sunday.

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The narration is delivered by Morgan Freeman and it was recorded before filming in one 90-minute session. When Darabont listened back to it, there was a background hiss that couldn’t be removed. Freeman had to re-record the whole thing, which took 3 weeks.

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When Andy and Red meet, Red is playing baseball. The scene took 9 hours to shoot, so Freeman was pitching all day long. Darabont said he didn’t complain but turned up with his arm in a sling the next day.

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According to reports, there was a mixed response on how filming went. Robbins has said “Frank made a beautiful film. It changed my career and my life.” Freeman though, said “There were moments of extreme tension on the set between the director and actors.”

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In the second act, Andy locks himself in the Warden’s office and plays opera over the speakers. The music is from The Marriage of Figaro, by Mozart. Darabont said he used this piece as when he was writing the script, he would listen to Mozart to help inspire him.

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Also, the opera-playing moment wasn’t in the original script. It was Tim Robbins’ idea to add it. Also, Red says “I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about.” They’re composing a letter to expose one of their husbands’ infidelity.

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One of the key moments is when Andy escapes Shawshank. It’s a great twist, but is foreshadowed several times. The first time Andy meets the warden, Norton holds Andy’s Bible and says “salvation lies within.” Which it does, Andy’s rock hammer is inside the Bible.

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Also, in certain scenes, Andy has dark circles under his eyes. Audiences may assume this is due to the tolls of prison life, but these are the days when Andy has been up all night digging the hole.

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King loved Darabont’s adaptation, but did have one criticism of the film. He said the hole Andy digs to escape from his cell was too round for King’s. He apparently said the hole was like something Wile E. Coyote digs when he’s trying to catch Road Runner!

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When Andy escapes he also steals the warden’s savings. Andy steals $370,000. In 1966 (when the film is set), that was the equivalent of $3.5m.

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A recurring scene is when we see Red appearing in front of the parole board. The final hearing, where Red is released, is the most quoted, and Morgan Freeman himself called that final hearing his best ever piece of acting.

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On the parole forms, we see a picture of a young Red when he was sent to prison. The picture is of Alonso Freeman, Morgan’s son. Alfonso also has a cameo - when Andy arrives at Shawshank he’s one of the inmates shouting, “Fresh fish! Fresh fish!”

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When the parole officer stamps ‘Approved’ on Red’s form, the stamp makes a loud bang. It is the same piece of sound design we hear when Warden Norton shoots himself at the end of the movie.

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In the book, the story ends with Red on the bus on his way to find Andy, and he says “I hope to see my friend again… I hope.” Darabont originally wanted to end that way too, but the studio insisted he add the scene on Zihuatanejo where we see them reunited.

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The areas of Ohio where Shawshank was filmed have all benefited. Since the film’s release, they get about 18,000 visitors per year and the local economy has increased by about $3m per year.

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There’s also a Shawshank trail in Ohio, where they sell Shawshank Bundt Cakes, Redemption Pie, and Red Wine. And, the year after Shawshank was released, sales of Rita Hayworth posters in the US went up by about 1000%.

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The budget for Shawshank was $25m and, on its initial run, it made just $16m at the box office. It’s been theorised that this is due to it competing directly with Pulp Fiction in cinemas and because of the title not making sense to audiences at the time.

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Word of mouth took hold though and, in 1995, Shawshank was the most rented VHS in America and is today the most played film on US TV. Bob Gunton later said he makes about $100,000 a year in royalties from TV screenings.

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Finally… Stephen King sold Darabont the Shawshank rights for $5000 but never cashed the cheque. The author was so pleased with the film that he had the cheque framed and mailed back to Darabont with a note saying: “In case you ever need bail money. Love, Steve.”

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THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION was released 31 years ago today. One of the most popular films ever made, and among the greatest Stephen King adaptations, the making of story has as many secrets as a Rita Hayworth poster…

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THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION was released 31 years ago today. One of...

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