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The film is generally faithful to the Stephen King novella. Here are some of the differences:
- The novella specifies that Andy smuggled five hundred dollars into the prison in his rectum; exactly how he pays Red the agreed-upon price of ten dollars for the rock hammer is never made clear in the film.
- Andy orders a second rock hammer from Red in the novella, after the first wears down. This does not occur in the film.
- Multiple wardens oversee the prison in the novella. They are combined into the character of Norton in the film. For example, in the novella, the warden who agrees to mail Andy's letters, and the warden who treats him so harshly at the end, are not the same person.
- In addition to Red being a white Irishman, the novella also gives details of his crime that the film doesn't.
- In the film, Hadley and his guards beat up Boggs as a favor to Andy for all his financial tips. In the novella, Andy uses the money he smuggled into the prison to pay thugs to do it.
- Tommy's story is slightly different. He tells Andy that his old cellmate bragged that the double-murder he committed was pinned on a lawyer, rather than a banker, and Andy latches onto the idea that the two professions were commonly confused at that time.
- Tommy is also not killed in the novella; after agreeing not to testify on Andy's behalf, he is sent to another prison.
- The ending received perhaps the most significant changes. The narrative Red gives of the time Andy spent in prison is different. In the novella, Andy spent 26 years in prison before his ultimate escape. In the film, he spends 19, as Red narrates "...Andy did it (picked through the wall in his cell) in less than 20."
- In addition, Red's narrative of the story of Andy Dufresne is a memoir Red has written in Shawshank after Andy's escape, and when he is surprisingly paroled he leaves the prison with the manuscript and concludes it with the confidence that he is going to travel to Mexico to find Andy. In the film there is no indication that Red has put his account on paper.
- When Red is released from Shawshank Prison, he finds a package Andy left for him in a hay field. In the film, he simply goes directly to it; while in the novella, his hunt for the appropriate hay field is a fairly substantial piece of the plot.
- The final scene of Andy sanding a boat on the beach as Red meets him again, is not present in the novella, which ends with Red on his way South to meet Andy. The matter of whether they found each other again is left ambiguous.
Andy and Red's opening chat in the prison yard, in which Red is throwing a baseball, took nine hours to shoot. Morgan Freeman threw the baseball for the entire nine hours without a word of complaint. He showed up for work the next day with his left arm in a sling.
Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford and Robert Duvall were considered for the part of Red. In the original novel, Red is a middle-aged white Irishman with graying red hair. However, Frank Darabont always had Morgan Freeman in mind for the role, because of his authoritative presence, demeanor, and deep voice. Red's reply, "Maybe it's because I'm Irish," to Andy's inquiry about his nickname was kept in the film as a joke.
Stephen King never cashed his $5,000 check for rights to the film. Several years after the movie came out, King got the check framed, and mailed it back to Frank Darabont with a note inscribed, "In case you ever need bail money. Love, Steve."
When Andy goes to the library to begin work as Brooks' assistant and Brooks' crow, Jake, is squawking, Tim Robbins had to time his line, "Hey, Jake. Where's Brooks?" so that the crow wouldn't squawk over him, since the bird could not be trained to squawk on cue. Robbins was able to time his line perfectly by learning the bird's squawking patterns, for which writer/director Frank Darabont praised him.
Frank Darabont: [old movie clips] The inmates are seen watching Gilda (1946). In the original novella, the prisoners watched The Lost Weekend (1945). Because the rights to the latter were owned by a different studio, Darabont looked to see which old films he could show without incurring costs. He was delighted to see that one that he was able to use was Gilda, one of the greatest hits of Rita Hayworth, whose image plays a pivotal role in the story.
Frank Darabont: Brian Libby Frank Darabont always tried to cast Libby in his films, and he appears in this film as Floyd.
Frank Darabont: [Heywood Floyd] Heywood and Floyd are the names of two Shawshank inmates. Heywood Floyd is a NASA administrator in books written by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, and 2010: Odyssey Two.