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The Danish title for the movie is "En Verden Udenfor," which means "A World Outside". The Finnish title is "Rita Hayworth - Avain pakoon" ("Rita Hayworth - The Key to Escape"). The French title is "Les Evadés" ("The Escapees"). The French Canadian title is "À l'ombre de Shawshank" ("Into the Shadow of Shawshank"). The German title is "Die Verurteilten" ("The Convicts"). The Greek title is "Teleutea Exodos - Rita Hayworth" ("Last Exit - Rita Hayworth"). The Hungarian title is "A remény rabjai" ("Prisoners of Hope"). The Israeli title is "Homot Shel Tikva" ("Walls of Hope"). The Italian title is "Le ali della libertà" ("The Wings of Freedom"). The Latin-American title is "Sueños de libertad" ("Dreams of Freedom"). The Mexican title is "Sueños de Fuga" ("Dreams of Escape"). The Norwegian title is "Frihetens Regn" ("The Rain of Freedom"). The Portuguese title is "Os Condenados de Shawshank" ("The Inmates of Shawshank"). The Romanian title is "Închisoarea îngerilor" ("Angels' Prison"). The Russian title is "Pobeg iz Shoushenka" ("An Escape from Shawshank"). The Spanish title is "Cadena Perpetua" ("Life Imprisonment"). The Swedish title is "Nyckeln Till Frihet" ("The Key To Freedom").The Turkish title is "Esaretin Bedeli" ("Price of Captivity")
Andy and Red's opening chat in the prison yard, in which Red is throwing a baseball, took nine hours to shoot. Morgan Freeman threw the baseball for the entire nine hours without a word of complaint. He showed up for work the next day with his left arm in a sling.
Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford and Robert Duvall were considered for the part of Red. In the original novel, Red is a middle-aged white Irishman with graying red hair. However, Frank Darabont always had Morgan Freeman in mind for the role, because of his authoritative presence, demeanor, and deep voice. Red's reply, "Maybe it's because I'm Irish," to Andy's inquiry about his nickname was kept in the film as a joke.
Stephen King never cashed his $5,000 check for rights to the film. Several years after the movie came out, King got the check framed, and mailed it back to Frank Darabont with a note inscribed, "In case you ever need bail money. Love, Steve."
When Andy goes to the library to begin work as Brooks' assistant and Brooks' crow, Jake, is squawking, Tim Robbins had to time his line, "Hey, Jake. Where's Brooks?" so that the crow wouldn't squawk over him, since the bird could not be trained to squawk on cue. Robbins was able to time his line perfectly by learning the bird's squawking patterns, for which writer/director Frank Darabont praised him.
Frank Darabont: [old movie clips] The inmates are seen watching Gilda (1946). In the original novella, the prisoners watched The Lost Weekend (1945). Because the rights to the latter were owned by a different studio, Darabont looked to see which old films he could show without incurring costs. He was delighted to see that one that he was able to use was Gilda, one of the greatest hits of Rita Hayworth, whose image plays a pivotal role in the story.
Frank Darabont: Brian Libby Frank Darabont always tried to cast Libby in his films, and he appears in this film as Floyd.
Frank Darabont: [Heywood Floyd] Heywood and Floyd are the names of two Shawshank inmates. Heywood Floyd is a NASA administrator in books written by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, and 2010: Odyssey Two.