Stephen King's Influence on the Shawshank Redemption


As the chief executive office of St. Hope Foundation, Rodney Goodie leads the health center’s strategic direction. During his free time, Rodney Goodie enjoys watching films and considers the 1994 classic Shawshank Redemption as his favorite.

It didn't perform well in the box office when it was released over two decades ago, but the prison drama has since earned a legendary status for receiving acclaim from critics and a number of Oscar nominations. Moreover, it also has won over the hearts of audiences, having topped IMDb's Favorite Movies list for many years now.

The film was based on a novella written by best-selling author Stephen King. The novella, titled "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption," was published in 1982. Writer-director Frank Darabont was able to procure rights to make the story into a feature film after making a short film based on King’s short story “The Woman in the Room.”

Darabont wrote the Shawshank script in only eight weeks and had to remove the Rita Hayworth aspect of the story because he received numerous resumes from actresses who wanted to play the nonexistent role of Hayworth.