60 Fun Facts About The Shawshank Redemption

In what year was The Shawshank Redemption released in cinemas?

It opened the same autumn as Pulp Fiction and was quickly buried by bigger films, only finding its audience on video and cable.

Who wrote and directed the film?

It was his feature directing debut; he later adapted two more stories by the same author, The Green Mile and The Mist.

Which author wrote the novella the film is based on?

The studio mostly left the author's name out of the advertising, fearing audiences would expect a horror movie.

What is the full title of the 1982 novella?

The odd title led several people to audition for the nonexistent role of the actress, including a man in drag.

The novella first appeared in which 1982 collection?

The same collection contains The Body, which became Stand by Me, and Apt Pupil.

What was Andy Dufresne's profession before prison?

His financial skills are what make him useful to the guards and, eventually, the warden.

Who plays Andy Dufresne?

To prepare he watched caged animals at a zoo, spent an afternoon in solitary confinement and had his arms and legs shackled for hours.

Who plays Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding?

He earned a Best Actor nomination for the role, one of the film's seven Oscar nominations.

In the novella, Red is described as what?

When Andy asks why he is called Red in the film, he answers, "Maybe it's because I'm Irish" — a wink at the casting change.

What is the surname of the warden of Shawshank?

He is a composite of several wardens from the novella, merged so the film would have a single main antagonist.

Which actor plays the warden?

He auditioned while shooting Demolition Man with a shaved head, so the production had a wig made for his screen test.

What is the name of the brutal captain of the guards?

Andy first wins protection by offering to help him legally shelter an inheritance from tax.

Whose poster hides the tunnel when Andy's cell is found empty?

The warden discovers it by throwing a stone at the poster in a rage.

Under what alias does Andy launder the warden's money in the film?

The novella uses a different name; the film changed it.

Andy dreams of starting over in which Mexican Pacific town?

Andy describes it as a place with no memory; critics have read it as a stand-in for heaven.

Which opera does Andy play over the prison loudspeakers?

The recording arrives in a library donation after years of weekly letters to the legislature; the screenplay compares finding it to finding the Holy Grail.

What is the first item Andy asks Red to smuggle in for him?

The scene where he asks for it took nine hours to film, leaving Red's actor with his arm in a sling from throwing a baseball in every take.

Which elderly inmate is paroled after 50 years and cannot cope outside?

In the novella he is a minor character who dies in a retirement home; the film made him a tragic figure.

Which young inmate reveals that his former cellmate confessed to Andy's crime?

Andy helps him pass his GED first; in the novella he is transferred to a nicer prison rather than killed.

Who leads the gang known as "the Sisters"?

James Gandolfini passed on the part; after the beating that nearly kills Andy, the character is crippled and transferred out.

Which real prison served as the fictional Shawshank penitentiary?

It had closed only three years before filming, and its Gothic stone buildings gave the producers the timeless look they wanted.

Most of the film was shot in and around which city?

The town now runs a 15-stop Shawshank Trail and local shops sell "Shawshanwiches".

In which US state is the story set?

Andy arrives from Portland, Maine, in 1947; the author sets much of his fiction in the state.

What was the film's production budget?

Castle Rock approved it within two weeks of reading the script; the writer-director took a $750,000 salary plus a share of net profits.

Roughly how much did the film gross in its initial 1994 theatrical run?

It failed to recoup its budget and was written off as a bomb until the Oscar nominations prompted a re-release.

How many Academy Award nominations did the film receive?

That is the most for any adaptation of the author's work; it won none of them.

Which film beat it to the Best Picture Oscar?

A 2013 Sky UK poll named Shawshank the greatest film never to win Best Picture.

Who composed the film's score?

It was his first Oscar nomination, and excerpts were used in other movies' trailers for years afterwards.

Who was the cinematographer?

He was hired at the lead actor's insistence after they worked together on The Hudsucker Proxy, and he considers the escape scene "over-lit".

Where was the closing beach reunion actually filmed?

The beach is Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, a protected nesting site for leatherback sea turtles.

Which 1946 film do the inmates watch in the prison theater?

It was chosen from a list of cheap Columbia titles after footage of the originally intended film proved too expensive.

Which Billy Wilder film was originally meant to be shown in that scene?

Paramount wanted too much for the footage, so the producers turned to Columbia's cheaper catalogue.

Over how many years does Andy dig his tunnel in the film?

Red had earlier joked that it would take a man 600 years to tunnel out with that hammer.

How many years has Red served when he is finally paroled?

A longer sequence of Red struggling on the outside was cut because test audiences were already convinced he would not make it.

How much of the laundered money does Andy withdraw after escaping?

He also mails the warden's ledger to a local newspaper, which brings the state police to Shawshank.

How much did the author charge the director for the film rights?

The check was never cashed; years later it came back framed with a note reading, "In case you ever need bail money. Love, Steve".

Which actor was originally cast as young inmate Tommy before dropping out?

He left after the success of Thelma & Louise, and the role went to a debuting Gil Bellows.

Rob Reiner offered to direct the film himself with which pair as Andy and Red?

Reiner offered up to $3 million for the script; the writer refused, saying he did not want to defer his dream for money.

Kevin Costner passed on playing Andy because he was committed to which film?

Tom Hanks also turned it down, for the film that went on to beat Shawshank at the Oscars.

Which Castle Rock producer pushed for a Black actor as Red and threatened to quit?

She also insisted on shooting the beach reunion, which the director initially thought was "commercial, sappy".

Red's actor's real-life son Alfonso appears in the film as what?

He also appears as the young Red in the mug-shot photos.

What did the actor playing Andy actually crawl through in the sewer-pipe scene?

The stream he emerges into was certified toxic by a chemist, so the crew dammed and chlorinated it.

Andy tells Red to find his buried package in a hayfield near which town?

The oak tree scene was shot near Malabar Farm State Park in Ohio; the tree was felled by winds in 2016 and its wood turned into souvenirs.

Which film did Shawshank overtake in 2008 to become number one on IMDb's Top 250?

It has held the top spot ever since, having hovered near it since the late 1990s.

In which year was the film added to the US National Film Registry?

Films become eligible ten years after release; it waited another decade beyond that.

How much did the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society pay Ohio for the prison in 2000?

The site was meant to be demolished; by 2019 it was estimated to earn $16 million a year as a tourist attraction.

In the novella, what pseudonym does Andy use for his hidden investments?

The film swapped it for a similar-sounding name.

Which cable network began airing the film regularly in 1997, driving its cult status?

Because the box office had been so poor, the network got the rights cheaply but could still charge premium ad rates.

The film became the top-rented video title of which year?

Warner Home Video shipped 320,000 rental copies in what was considered a risky move for a box-office flop.

The warden's look and public addresses have been compared to which US president?

Like that president, he projects piety while running corrupt schemes behind the scenes.

The film is dedicated to the memory of Allen Greene. Who was he?

He died of AIDS during filming.

Which instrument was added to the score cue "So Was Red" as a nod to Andy's gift?

The composer had written it for solo oboe and only reluctantly agreed; the session player nailed it on the first take.

On what date does Andy disappear from his cell in the novella?

In the book he has spent 28 years inside; the warden resigns three months later.

Which studio released the film in US cinemas?

Warner Bros. later acquired the rights in 1996 after Time Warner merged with Turner Broadcasting.

The prison used as Shawshank was shut by a federal court order in which year?

A federal court order over overcrowding and inhumane conditions shut it, three years before the cameras arrived.

Which actor plays Heywood, a member of Red's gang of long-serving convicts?

Darabont had approached Sadler about the project back in 1989 on the set of Tales from the Crypt, where Darabont was a writer.

At which film festival did The Shawshank Redemption premiere on 10 September 1994?

It opened in just 33 US theaters two weeks later, taking $727,327 on its first weekend.

The beach used for 'Zihuatanejo' is a wildlife refuge protecting which animal?

Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge on St. Croix stood in for the Mexican Pacific, just as an Ohio prison stood in for Maine.

In Darabont's original ending, what was the last image of Red?

Producer Liz Glotzer insisted on shooting the beach reunion, which Darabont worried was 'commercial, sappy', and it made the final cut.

What happened to the film's famous oak tree in July 2016, five years after lightning split it?

The New York Times reported the tree was drawing thousands of visitors a year as a symbol of hope before it fell.