Did you know that The Shawshank Redemption was based upon a novella by Stephen King and that the author let director Frank Darabont adapt said novella essentially for free? An early directorial effort from The Walking Dead’s Frank Darabont, 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption didn’t perform as expected upon release but has slowly but surely risen in stature to become a modern classic. There are many cool facts about the movie that fans might not know, including that it was based upon a novella by Stephen King. Not only that, but Stephen sold the rights to the novella for only $1,000 and then returned the check to the director after seeing the premiere because he was so satisfied.
▬Contents of this video▬ 00:00 - Intro 00:26 - A Different Kind of Stephen King Adaptation 02:16 - Small Changes Were Made from Novella to Film 03:54 - Frank Darabont Was Inspired by GoodFellas 05:13 - Morgan Freeman Had Never Done Voiceover Before 06:30 - Outro
The novella that The Shawshank Redemption was based upon was called Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Frank Darabont made the choice to remove the “Rita Hayworth” part from the title early on during the production of the film because he didn’t want audiences to mistakenly think that it was a biopic on the life of the Golden Age starlet. As it stood, multiple actresses had shown up to audition for the part of Rita even though she wasn’t actually a character in the film! Rita’s inclusion in the title of the novella stems from the fact that main character Andy Dufresne used a poster of her to cover up a hole that he is chiseling away at in the wall of his prison cell.
In the film, the poster that Andy uses to cover the hole is changed from one of Rita Hayworth to one for the film One Million Years B.C. Another change that Frank Darabont made while adapting Stephen King’s novella to the big screen was when it came to casting the character of Ellis Body Redding, or “Red” for short. In the Stephen King novella, the character of Red had been a red-haired Irishman. Despite this, Frank had always envisioned Morgan in the role. Stephen agreed with the casting choice.
There are many other interesting facts from the making of The Shawshank Redemption, including both the tale of the maggot that died of natural causes and that Stephen King ended up giving Frank Darabont back the $1,000 that he had paid for rights. Join Facts Verse as this scene wasn’t edited, look closer at the Shawshank Redemption blooper.
This Scene Wasn’t Edited, Look Closer at the Shawshank Redemption Blooper
By: Facts Verse Title: This Scene Wasn’t Edited, Look Closer at the Shawshank Redemption Blooper Sourced From: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-tW87u6asQ
