Stephen King ‘never cashed’ Shawshank Redemption cheque but sent it to one star | Books | Entertainment

Stephen King never cashed out his $5,000 rights check for the Shawshank Redemption.  The author’s 1982 novel Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption inspired the film that was released in 1994. 

It was made known that years after the film was released, Stephen King decided to give his rights check back to Frank Darabont, who directed the movie, which featured Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd Redding, Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne and Clancy Brown as Captain Hadley.

The rights to the story were purchased by director Darabont in 1987, but he did not adapt it into a feature-length movie until 1994. Darabont wrote the script in an eight-week period and the movie was given the green light two weeks after he submitted the final script.

King then never cashed the check he had received but decided to repurpose it. 

Russell Adams surfaced this in the Wall Street Journal, saying: “Years after Shawshank came out, the author got the check framed and mailed it back to the director [Frank Darabont] with a note inscribed: ‘In case you ever need bail money. Love, Steve.’”

Despite the film not bagging any Oscars, it did receive seven nominations, (which is the most any of King’s adaptations have received) including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor at the 1995 Academy Awards ceremony.

The film itself is widely regarded as one of the world’s must-see films and has received much praise in the years after its release. 

Upon its opening Shawshank Redemption was not a box-office hit, earning $58.6 million globally. It was, however, one of the top rented films of that year once it was released on VHS and it is still played very often on TV, 

Shawshank Redemption now has a 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. In the time since he sold the rights to Shawshank Redemption in the late 1980s, King has continued to give away his movie rights for little money, with his Dollar Baby initiative in place to allow aspiring filmmakers to gain access to his works for $1.