The Shawshank Redemption (1994): 15 INSANE Facts You Never Knew

The Shawshank Redemption looked like a prison drama about hope, friendship, and survival. But behind the walls of Shawshank was a production filled with brutal shooting conditions, studio doubts, casting near-misses, and a box office failure so bad it nearly buried the movie forever. Morgan Freeman spent nine hours throwing a baseball until his arm gave out. Frank Darabont turned down millions of dollars to keep directing the film himself. The studio wanted to cut Red’s narration completely, and nobody could even remember the movie’s title after it premiered. These are 15 weird facts about The Shawshank Redemption — the kind that make the most beloved movie of all time feel even more unbelievable once you know what happened behind the scenes.