25 Things You Didn't Know About The Shawshank Redemption

[Music] the shawshank redemption' x' position as a pop culture monolith cannot be overstated between its iconic dialogue wonderful performances and deeply humanistic depiction of [ __ ] prevailing over despair it's an all-time classic for damn fine reason despite its relatively modest budget and production though Shawshank wasn't an easy shoot for anyone with Frank Darabont and his crew scarcely avoiding disaster several times over between err brutally demanding shooting schedule and a fighter that damn near destroyed one of the movie's major sets and yet the end result feels so meticulously perfectly polished but you'd never guess it was such a grueling experience for all involved I'm Josh from our culture comp and these are 25 things you didn't know about the Shawshank Redemption in honor of its 25th anniversary number 25 Morgan Freeman recorded his voiceover before shooting began though the typical rules of filmmaking dictate that any voiceover required for a movie is recorded during post-production Frank Darabont took the highly unconventional move of having Morgan Freeman record Reds memorable narration before shooting had even begun Freeman recorded the original tech of the narration in an IO a recording studio in just 40 minutes but unfortunately there was a hiss audible on the track which couldn't be erased by the sound team as a result Freeman ended up having to re-record his voice over in a better equipped studio and this time it took an entire three weeks to perfect number 24 Stephen King sold the rights for just $5,000 Stephen King who wrote the novel on which the Shawshank Redemption is best ended up selling the rights to Terrebonne for a mere $5,000 after becoming friends with the filmmaker when he asked permission to adapt King shot story the woman in the room into a script another five years passed before Darabont brought the script after acquiring the rights and hilariously King never ended up cashing the check Darabont sent him instead King later framed it and sent it back to Darabont with a note saying in case you ever need bail money love Steve number 23 it didn't win as --single Oscar even though these shawshank redemption' is often regarded as one of the greatest films ever made even holding the number one spot on the IMDB top 250 it curiously went home totally empty-handed at the 1995 Academy Awards while the film was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay it was unfortunate enough to release in a heavyweight year facing stiff competition from both Pulp Fiction and especially Forrest Gump with the latter winning six Oscars including Best Picture number 22 Frank Darabont's inexperience was a frequent issue on set incredibly the movie was Frank Darabont's theatrical feature debut and his lack of experience as a filmmaker caused plenty of friction on set with the cast and crew resulting in shooting often lasting up to 18 hours per day during six-day weeks Morgan Freeman took issue with the number of tics Darabont required especially to the extent that he often refused to perform additional text that the director requested curiously darabond bristled Maus Thor with cinematographer Roger Deakins Darabont favored epic sweeping shots of the prison exterior while Deakins felt that only shown the outside of the prison occasionally would emphasize the claustrophobic tension of the piece number 21 Reds mug shots are of Morgan Freeman's son cheering Reds parole hearing we memorably catch a brief glimpse of a mug shot of his younger self and rather than simply hire an actor resembling a young Freeman for the brief cameo Freeman's own son Alonzo was drafted into tech the pictures Alonso also has a cameo in the film proper shouting fresh fish fresh fish today we're reeling him in as Andy is being brought into Shawshank in one of the opening scenes number 20 Frank Darabont used Goodfellas as an inspiration given d'arbonne snorted in experience while making the movie he quite sensibly deferred to one of the old-time filmmaking masters for inspiration during shooting every Sunday while making the Shawshank Redemption Darabont would watch Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas ultimately taking note of its exemplary use of voiceover narration and sharp editing to dictate the passage of time the irony of course is that good and performed at the Oscars just like Shawshank number 19 Stephen King's name was intentionally kept out of the marketing you'd be forgiven for not actually knowing that the Shawshank Redemption was based on a Stephen King ped novella given Kings nota deference towards the horror genre and the hotel lack of Kings name in the film's marketing materials this was in fact a totally intentional move on the part of Columbia Pictures who after seeing the film test screen extremely well felt that an association with King might harm the film's commercial prospects as more general audiences weren't much keen on horror despite the attempt to attract mainstream crowds and draw up a steady head of awards hype this strategy actually backfired as the film ended a bombing during its initial theatrical release number 18 Tom Hanks almost played Andy it goes without saying that the role of protagonist Andy was majorly sought-after in Hollywood with the likes of Jeff Bridges Kevin Costner Tom Cruise Matthew Broderick Nicolas Cage and Johnny Depp all either being offered or lobbying for the part before it eventually went to Tim Robbins but the actor who likely would have played the part had it not been for scheduling conflicts was Tom Hanks who ultimately had to turn it down due to being committed to Forrest Gump in terms of awards I suppose he actually kind of bucked the right horse number 17 shooting the baseball scene took so long it injured Morgan Freeman's arm who can forget the early scene where Andy is introduced to Rhett who is busy playing a game of catch with another inmate in the yard despite the seemingly simplicity of the scene this sequence actually took a whole nine hours to shoot for his part though Morgan Freeman completed the nine hours of shooting without complaint yet as you might imagine throwing a baseball back and forth for that long would aggravate and he wants up and as a result Freeman came to the set next year with his left arm in a sling whether he truly was injured enough to require a sling always simply trying to make a crafty point to Darabont about his shooting style only Freeman knows number 16 Frank Darabont took a huge pay cut to direct the movie himself after Frank Darabont completed his script for the movie and it began doing the rounds in Hollywood director Reyna who had previously helmed stand by me also best offer King novella loved the script enough to offer Darabont 2.5 million dollars for the rights to it ran a plan to directed himself while favoring Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise for read and Andy respectively Darabont seriously considered the offer but seeing this as his one big shot to make it turned it down while taking a massive pay cut in order to direct the film himself earning just seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars for writing and directing plus a percentage of the net profits as well number 15 Tim Robbins spent time in solitary confinement to prepare for the role in order to prepare to play and the Tim Robbins spent time in solitary confinement asking to be locked into solitary for an afternoon in the hope of understanding the isolation and hopelessness Robbins of course accepted that he'd only learned a fraction of what a truly solitary inmate would feel given that his quote-unquote incarceration was ultimately voluntary and he could leave at any time he also visited the zoo to observe caged animals spoke with both prisoners and guards and had his arms and legs shackled for several hours to better appreciate the physical rigors of being imprisoned number fourteen people originally thought it was a Rita Hayworth biopic Stephen King's original novella is called Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption but the decision was made to shorten the title both because of its overt wordiness and also the belief throughout the industry that Darabont was initially directing a biopic of actress Rita Hayworth this was pervasive enough that Dara bond received urban submissions from actresses and supermodels about playing Hayworth before he dropped her name from the title the director even received a call from an agent who claimed he'd read the script only to inquire about the obviously non-existent hair Worth role number thirteen Clancy Brown didn't want to portray a realistic corrections officer counter to Tim Robbins striving for absolute realism and authenticity in his performance Clancy Brown went in the total opposite direction for his unforgettable portrayal of brutal prison guard Byron Hadley after taking the part Brown received offers from several real corrections officers to help him prepare for the part and in sewer hardly was as believable as screw as possible but Brown ended up refusing all of these offers because he felt that Hadley was evil and wanted to tap into that rather than risk creating a misconception about the behaviors of real corrections officers number 12 a Castle Rock producer threatened to quit if they didn't make the movie The Shawshank Redemption was a risky bet for production company Castle Rock and determined first several reasons least not that prison dramas typically weren't successful at the box office however when darabond script came across the desk of Castle Rock producer Liz Gloucester she loved it enough that she threatened to quit the company they didn't agree to produce the movie thankfully that gamble paid off and then some and in addition to Gloucester receiving an executive producer credit she served as a co-producer on Durbin's 2007 King adaption the mist number 11 the prison set almost burned down mid shooting in order to give the impression of sunlight in Andy and Red's prison cellblock plastic sheeting was placed over the windows allowing lamps to shine behind them and convincingly depict the elements however while on a coffee break between Tex Darabont and extra Michael C Poole noticed that one of the lamps had been placed too close to one of the windows causing it to set a flame had they not discovered this purely by chance the set could very well have burned down poorly sustained major fire damage putting production in jeopardy number 10 Frank Darabont's hands appear in two scenes it's not uncommon for directors to give themselves sneaky cameos in their movies and sensibly Darwin decided to limit his cameo to a faceless one the filmmaker actually appears in two scenes both featuring shots of his hands when Andy is shown loading his gun in the opening montage those hands are actually Darabont's and when Andy carves his name into his cell wall that's once again the directors handiwork sorry about that no but I'm it was initially released to just 33 cinemas the Shawshank Redemption was released in September 1994 to a mere 33 cinemas across North America and it wasn't for another three weeks expanded to another 910 cinemas that's pretty bad for the filmmakers already but to make matters worse this happened to be the very same day that Quentin Tarantino's pulp fiction hits screens which promptly steamrolled any chance it had of building a head of steam at the box office worse still Darabont and after mentioned executive producer Liz Glosser visited a cinema on opening night and found it totally empty even selling their own tickets to passers-by with the promise they could get a refund from Castle Rock if they didn't like it ouch number 8 red cell number is a reference to the shiny any Stephen King fan worth their salt will be aware of the importance of the number 237 which of course refers to Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Kings The Shining with room 237 of the iconic Overlook Hotel being haunted though in King's novel it was actually in fact two one seven two three seven appears in some form in many adaptations of Kings stories and despite being the farthest thing from a conventional horror film though it's plenty horrific in more tangible terms the Shawshank Redemption is no exception red cell number in fact is to 3/7 how cute number 7 it gave Roger Deakins his first Best Cinematography Oscar nomination the film represented a major turning point for the career of now legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins who while already an incredibly experienced DP earned his first Oscar nomination for his work on the film this set deacons on a 23-year path towards finally winning a Best Cinematography Oscar on his fourteenth nomination or less for Blade Runner 20:49 up until his belated when Deakins was often cited as one of the most deserving repeated Oscar nominees to never actually take the gong home and that narrative began quite happily with this classic movie number 6 Charlie Sheen was desperate to play Andy while the script was being pressed around Hollywood it ended up landing in the lap of rising star Charlie Sheen who loved the script enough to call up a Castle Rock executive he was familiar with and then begged them to hire him to play Andy Sheen even offered to do the part for nothing more than an essay g.skill feet and proposed filming a test reel to prove he was up to the task however Castlerock refused and shortly thereafter cast him Robins in the part as much of a laughingstock as Sheen might be nowadays the earlier days of his career saw him genuinely give compelling dramatic performances even if by the time Shawshank was going into production he was better known for comedy vehicles searches hot shots and its sequel number 5 Stephen King has one very specific criticism of the movie though Stephen King loved the film and regards it as one of the strongest adaptations of his work he did have one very specific criticism of the film King felt that the climactic reveal of Andy's tunnel felt too cartoonish due to the precisely round nature of the hall which he compared to a tunnel you'd expect to see carved by wily coyote and this is actually a sentiment shared by some funds and you can absolutely see whet king is coming from for a whole chiseled over almost 20 years with a small rock hammer it does look a little too perfect there before the iconic rain scene was a disaster to shoot surely the most iconic and unforgettable visual in the entire movie is that of Tim Robbins raising his arms into the air and soaking the pouring rain in after escaping Shawshank it was featured in virtually all of the movies marketing yet the scene was very nearly ruined by technical issues during shooting as every tech Darabont shot was out of focus luckily Roger Deakins and Darabont finally figured out the problems for the final possible setup they could shoot before moving on filming one more successful tick which was in pristine focus that's how close they came to not making cinematic history number three there's a curious font related factual error even the most judiciously assembled period movies generally can't release without a historical factual mistake and Shawshank is no exception but it is a hilariously mundane error which has nevertheless been soundly missed by ninety nine point nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine percent of viewers that's because the mistake actually refers to the font used on the stamp four Reds parole he rings the first time we see the stamp is in 1947 with the stamp bearing the Helvetica font except Helvetica wasn't invented until a decade later in 1957 absolutely shambolic terrible if you ask me not out of 10 number 2 Sidney pottier turned down the role of red before Morgan Freeman won the role of red and made it forever his own it was in fact offered to the decidedly more famous Oscar winner Sidney pottier and while it's easy to see how an actor of Poitier's legend and dignity could have delivered a performance on par with Freeman's work what here actually turned the role down believing that playing a convict wasn't setting a good example for a black man number one frank darabont originally wanted a more ambiguous ending Darabont actually wanted the Shawshank Redemption to end in a decidedly more ambiguous fashion hoping to conclude the movie on the shot of red Sun on the bus heading towards the Mexican border feeling that the scripted reunion between red and Andy was a little too sappy Liz Gloucester however suggested that the audience deserved to see red and Andy meet again and provided Darabont with the money to shoot the scene regardless of his own opinion while assuring him that he'd have final say on whether it was included or not Darabont ultimately shot red and Andy's reunion at a distance to give it some restraint and cut some of their reunion dialogue for fear it was a little bit too cutesy after test audiences rated at their favorite scene in the movie though and both Freeman and Robbins lobbied for its inclusion Darabont eventually relented so that's our list is there anything I missed off here that you think would be cool to mention down in the comments below and are you going to give the Shawshank Redemption another spin in order of its 25th anniversary I wanna know down in the comments below and while you're there could you give us a like share subscribe and head over to what culture dot-com for more lists and news like this every single day even if you don't though I've been just thank you for watching and I'll see you soon you

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Length: 17min 36sec (1056 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 09 2019