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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