25 years ago, it was a box office disappointment. Later, it slowly gained momentum through word of mouth. Today, it’s considered one of the greatest films of all time. Here’s everything you need to know about the film The Shawshank Redemption.

Produced and written by Matt Beat. All images and video used under fair use guidelines.

Music credits:    • Theme from The Shawshank Redemption   Tom Walley https://www.tomwalley.co.uk/

Photo credits (Creative Commons):
Siebbi
Kingkongphoto
Comisión Mexicana de Filmaciones
SSobachek
Nicolas Henderson

Sources/further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sha...
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/...
https://www.npr.org/2011/08/04/138986...
https://www.dailydot.com/via/shawshan...
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/16/751861...
https://www.wkyc.com/article/entertai...

Frank Darabont approaches Stephen King and asks him if he can turn his novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, into a full-length feature film. Although King was a bit confused about how Darabont could actually turn his story into a movie, he approved it anyway. King had worked with Darabont before and trusted him, after all. Darabont bought the rights to the story for $5,000. But King never cashed the check. He later framed the check and returned it to Darabont with a note that read: “In case you ever need bail money. Love, Steve.”

Darabont poured everything into writing the screenplay, and eventually the screenplay took a life on its own, greatly expanding King’s original story.

“It was the best script I’ve ever read. Ever.” That quote was from Tim Robbins, the actor Castle Rock Entertainment would eventually cast as the main character of the film. Castle Rock produced the film when producer Liz Glotzer threatened to quit if they didn’t take it on.

As it turns out, Castle Rock loved the script, too. Director Rob Reiner, who also happened to be the co-founder of Castle Rock, loved the script so much he offered Darabont up to $3 million to let him direct it himself. Reiner also said they’d finance any other film Darabont wanted to make. Darabont turned down the offer, wanting to direct the film himself. Castle Rock gave him a $25 million budget, and he began pre-production in January 1993, with Niki Marvin as the lead producer. As I said earlier, Tim Robbins took the role of the main character, Andy. However, that was after Kevin Costner, Tom Hanks, and Tom Cruise all turned down the role. Robbins talked Darabont into hiring Roger Deakins with him, a well known cinematographer who had worked with him in The Hudsucker Proxy.
To prepare for the role, Robbins spoke with various prisoners and guards, had his arms and legs shackled for a few hours, and even spent some time in solitary confinement. The producers cast Morgan Freeman as “Red,” even though his character in the novella was white and Irish.

Filming took place in the summer of 1993 at the Ohio State Reformatory, a historic prison which had closed three years prior. Darabont tended to be a perfectionist on set, requiring multiple takes for even the most simple scenes. Actors regularly worked up to 18-hour days. Darabont filmed most interior shots in the actual prison, not elsewhere.

When Castle Rock test screened The Shawshank Redemption, early audiences absolutely loved it, and critics praised it. Expectations were high when the film opened in theaters on September 23, 1994. However, it ended up being a flop, losing money at the box office and only making $16 million after 10 weeks in theaters. Part of the problem was the name of the film. People had a hard time even saying it. Another problem was that it was competing with a bunch of big films like Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump. However, film critics kept pouring in the love, and eventually it was nominated for seven Oscars. After getting recognized at the Academy Awards, Castle Rock re-released the film in theaters so it could try to break even. It was still a disappointment.

But The Shawshank Redemption had a...um...redemption of sorts through an old medium called VHS. It became one of the most-rented films of 1995. And since the cable network TNT could regularly show the film at a very low cost, it showed it all the time. After Warner Brothers got the rights to the film, it expanded it into regular programming on even more cable networks. By 2013, the film had been on 15 cable channels. Because of this, word of mouth spread like wildfire. It became a cult hit, and eventually the film made $58.3 million worldwide. Redemption indeed.