The Shawshank Redemption’s brilliant reworking of Stephen King, 25 years on

“It’s incumbent upon any screenwriter, who is adapting anything, to extract the moments and characters and events for a thematic purpose first and then for plot.” – Kathy DeMarco Van Cleve

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Kathy discuss the reason for the popularity of The Shawshank Redemption, including the script (3:00); the importance of good acting within the film (14:00); the skilled directing of Frank Darabont (26:00); Stephen King and the story behind the movie (32:00); and how watching movies has changed and whether this film will stand the test of time (45:00).

Kathy DeMarco Van Cleve is a novelist, screenwriter, film producer, and teacher at the University of Pennsylvania in their Cinema Studies department. Her most recent book, Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge, came out in January. For more about Kathy, check out http://www.kathyvancleve.com/

Notable Links:

• The Shawshank Redemption (film)
• Stephen King (author)
• Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (novella)
• Paris Writing Workshop (writing workshop)
• Frank Darabont (director)
• The Body, by Stephen King (novella)
• Different Seasons, by Stephen King (collection of novellas)
• Stand by Me (film)
• Pulp Fiction (film)
• Bartleby, the Scrivener, by Herman Melville (short story)
• The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• On Writing, by Stephen King (book)
• Brokeback Mountain (film)
• The Godfather (film)
• Chinatown (film)
• Raging Bull (film)

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The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

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