Stephen King, the author of the original novelhelped the new director establish a reputation through theprogram . In 1983, the director of the film, Frank De Labont, bought the film adaptation rights of "The Woman in the Room" from Stephen for $1 and made it into a short film. This was the first collaboration between the two.
In 1987, De Labont was listed as a screenwriter for the first time with the movie "Night Ghost Street 3". Then he contacted Stephen King and bought the film adaptation copyright of his novel "Shawshank's Redemption" for $5,000. This novella is 96 pages in length and is part of Stephen's 1982 collection of novels "Four Seasons". It is also a genre that Stephen tried in addition to the horror-themed novels on which he became famous. Most of the content in the novel is that Rhett takes care of the cellmate Andy for a long time. Stephen felt that such a subject matter was difficult to adapt into a movie, but De Labont thought it was not difficult.
Five years later, in 1992, De Labont spent eight weeks adapting the novel into a screenplay, adding a lot of content to the original. There are few scenes in Brooks in the novel, and he eventually died in a nursing home, but he was changed into a tragic character who eventually hanged himself in the movie. In the novel, Tommy uses evidence to send Andy to a better-environment prison. In the film, Tommy is ordered to be killed by Warden Norton. In addition, Norton is a combination of several wardens in Stephen’s novels, and Delabont decides to use a single warden as the villain in the movie.
Director Frank Delabont said that many absurd stories directed by Frank Capra had a great influence on the film, such as "Mr. Smith to Washington" in 1939 and "How Beautiful is Life" in 1946. In his view, "Shawshank's Redemption" is more like a ridiculous story than a prison movie. Other movies have also had an impact on the film, such as the 1990 movie "Good Guy" using dialogue to show the passage of time in the script, and another example of John Frankheimer's 1962 prison drama "The Birdman of Alcatez". While looking for a location for the film, Delabond happened to encounter Frankheimer, who was also choosing a location for the prison-themed movie "Silent Men". Heimer encouraged and provided suggestions for Delabond.
In the first half of the 1990s, prison movies were generally unpopular in the United States, but the producer of Castle Rock Entertainment Liz Glose was very interested in prison themes and was satisfied with De Labont’s script. She even threatened The company resigns if it refuses to produce. The company’s founder and director Rob Reiner also liked De Labont’s script and expressed his willingness to personally direct and provide a budget of 2.4 to 3 million US dollars. He plans to ask Tom Cruise to play Andy and Harrison Ford. To interpret Reid.
In 2014, director Frank De Labont gave up the opportunity proposed by Castle Rock Entertainment to greatly improve his position in the industry. Instead, he decided to take the time to direct the film himself. He said that people can always delay the realization of their dreams. Time is exchanged for money, and in the end, he may not be able to accomplish what he wanted to do in the first place. Two weeks after the script was sent to Castle Rock Entertainment, De Labont received a $25 million budget for the film, including $750,000 in screenwriter and director salaries, plus a net profit share. The film started in early 1993. Start pre-production.
