25 Things You Didn't Know About The Shawshank Redemption

14. People Originally Thought It Was A Rita Hayworth Biopic

Stephen King's original novella is called Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, but the decision was made to shorten the title both because of its overt wordiness and also the belief throughout the industry that Darabont was initially directing a biopic of actress Rita Hayworth.

This was pervasive enough that Darabont received open submissions from actresses and supermodels, as well as a man in drag, about playing Hayworth before he dropped her name from the title.

The director even received a call from an agent who claimed he'd read the script, only to inquire about the obviously non-existent Hayworth role. Between this and the dim commercial prospects of such a verbose title, it was the only choice.

The irony, though, is that the ambiguity of the film's eventual title is often cited as one of the reasons that it bombed at the box office, given that it doesn't clearly indicate a premise or genre.