Director Frank Darabont Doesn't Think He Could Get The Shawshank Redemption Made Today
"The Shawshank Redemption" was released in theaters nearly 29 years ago, and it's still the highest-rated film on IMDb. It's the definitive prison movie, one that's been parodied and referenced to death in pop culture, and it's probably going to be sticking around in public consciousness for a long while more. But despite the fact that everyone basically agrees it's a great movie, writer/director Frank Darabont doesn't believe it could be made in today's movie landscape.
"I am absolutely certain that I could not make that movie today," he told IndieWire in a 2019 interview. "I don't think I could get 'Green Mile' made today. I don't think I could get 'The Majestic' made today."
The claim that a particular movie/show couldn't have aired today is usually made as part of an attack on perceived PC culture, but Darabont is more concerned about studio interference. "I can't even begin to imagine the studio meddling that would have happened with a movie like 'Shawshank,' if not for Castle Rock (which produced it)," he explained. "Castle Rock was — it was the magic kingdom. They were an extraordinary place founded by a filmmaker who understood the creative autonomy that a filmmaker needs to do their best work."
Why he's right
"I don't know if there's room in our business today for a company like Castle Rock, which is a darn shame," Darabont said. While one can perhaps argue that he's being a little over-dramatic, he does have a point: the movie landscape today seems a little more lifeless than the landscape of 1994. To see the difference, all one has to do is look at the box office winners of that year. Some of the best performing movies of 1994 were "Forrest Gump," "The Lion King," "True Lies," "Speed." It's a varied list of movies, many of them completely original, most of them feeling like the directors and writers had complete control over the story they wanted to tell.
It paints a different picture than the list of box office winners of 2019, the year Darabont made this claim. That year's top 10 list was made up almost exclusively of comic book movies and/or sequels in pre-established franchises. Most of those movies weren't terrible or anything, but there is something a little depressing about how little genre diversity there is on these lists, and that's only gotten worse in recent years.
There are still thoughtful, original movies being made today, movies where it feels like the creatives genuinely have most of the control over the story they're telling, but more often than not those movies are flops in the box office, or they're made with a small budget and given a limited theatrical release. It's hard to imagine a movie like "The Shawshank Redemption" being a hit if they released it in theaters in 2023. But then again...
Why he's wrong
While "The Shawshank Redemption" is beloved today, it's worth remembering that it wasn't a particularly big hit in theaters either. It was a box office disappointment at the time, and it only really had the chance to win its way into our hearts because TNT kept playing the movie on their channel on a loop for 20 years straight. Much like with "A Christmas Story," Ted Turner told America that we were going to learn to like this movie whether we wanted to or not, and that's exactly what ended up happening.
Even back in 1994, audiences didn't typically drive to the theaters on opening nights to see slow-paced, non-sequel dramas with no action setpieces. Thoughtful, artsy, patient films like this are always more likely to find its audience slowly over time rather than straight away.
That's why we're a little skeptical of Darabont's claim that his early movies couldn't have been made today; movies like "The Shawshank Redemption," where they don't feel like the studio's constantly interfering, where it doesn't feel like the movie's purely catering to what it thinks the masses want, are still being made today. Just look at "Tár" or "Banshees of Inisherin," or "Bablyon" or "Pearl." These movies vary in quality and sure, none of them ended up being major box office winners, but "Shawshank" wasn't either.
Darabont still sees bright spots
When asked whether the movie landscape was completely hopeless, Darabont did at least have some movies he enjoyed recently that he could point to. "I do see some personal soul-making still happening. 'Hateful Eight' is a great example," he explained. Another film shoutout of his was more surprising: "I love 'Doctor Strange.' I'm not necessarily a superhero kind of moviegoer, but there are some examples. Benedict Cumberbatch (the lead) is like my favorite actor these days, I just adore him. That was done very, very well, and I really enjoyed it."
And if Darabont's looking for a replacement to Castle Rock, the hands-off studio that gave him so much freedom in his early career, there are still some similar studios today. The most notable one is A24, which has really made a name for itself in recent years for producing a bunch of weird, unique, varied films like "Midsommar," "Uncut Gems," "Everything Everywhere All At Once," and "Lamb." They don't always do a great promoting their movies — it was a running gag on film Twitter for awhile that they only seemed to use one image from "The Whale" over and over again — but the creatives behind the films always seem to have a lot of freedom.
So although it feels like things have gotten worse over the years, Frank Darabont still has a hope for movies, and so should you. As he himself will tell you, great movies haven't gone extinct. "I see a guy like Danny Boyle going back time and time again, making one great movie after another," Darabont said. "It's not all the franchise stuff, but there's some really good movies that come out of that, too."