New rumors are floating around that a new version of The Shawshank Redemption might be coming soon. The original movie is based on Stephen King’s short novella, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, which was included in Different Seasons. Frank Darabont directed the film after getting King’s attention with his Dollar Baby film, The Woman in the Room. What resulted was magical, as The Shawshank Redemption is often listed among the best movies ever made.

Tim Robbins stars as Andy Dufrane, a man wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, and Morgan Freeman is Red Redding, a long-term prisoner he became friends with throughout his years in the Shawshank Penitentiary. The Shawshank Redemption didn’t have great success at the box office, but achieved popularity on home video. When awards season rolled around, the Academy Awards nominated it for Best Picture, although it was in the same year as Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction. Thirty years later, there is still no reason ever to remake it.

Why A Shawshank Redemption Remake Is More Likely Than Ever

Stephen King Got His Rights Back

In some concerning news, Stephen King is terminating the Warner Bros. copyright license for The Shawshank Redemption. This doesn’t mean that a new version is on the way, but it does open up the idea that a new movie or TV series could be coming in the form of a remake. According to the reports, King’s attorneys notified Warner Bros. that he would terminate the copyright on the movie. The report also indicates that King is “very aggressive” about his terminations because there is still a large market for adaptations of his books.

In the last 10 years alone, King has agreed to new adaptations of Salem’s Lot, Firestarter, Pet Sematary, It, and a TV series based on The Stand. There is also a new Mike Flanagan series coming based on Carrie for Prime Video and an Edgar Wright adaptation of The Running Man arriving later in 2025. All those new attempts at old movies and TV shows had room for improvement, save for possibly Carrie. However, for The Shawshank Redemption, there is no way to improve on the first movie.

The Shawshank Redemption Is One Movie That Can Never Be Remade

There Is No Reason For A New Version Of The King Tale

When Frank Darabont made his Dollar Baby film, Stephen King was extremely impressed and offered him the option to make The Shawshank Redemption into a feature-length movie. Darabont was able to get financing and make the film, and it might have been the best decision that King ever made. King was so happy with what Darabont did that he offered The Green Mile to him before it was even published. It gave Darabont another Oscar nomination, and then he finished his King trilogy with The Mist.

Frank Darabont shocked the world when he made a prison movie that was not only a highly inspirational movie, but a great film even for people who don’t usually care for prison films. Critics awarded it an 89% Rotten Tomatoes score, but audiences delivered an almost perfect 98% rating. It is even more impressive on IMDb, where it has a 9.3 out of 10 score, which ranks as the number one movie of all time on the site. The Godfather has a 9.2 out of 10, and no other movie is over nine.

Tim Robbins was never better, and Morgan Freeman was with him every step of the way. The escape scene and the huge moment when Andy burst into freedom and stood in the rain remain one of the best moments in any film in Hollywood history. A filmmaker like Mike Flanagan could do a lot with a story like The Shawshank Redemption, and he proved this with his inspirational King adaptation, The Life of Chuck. However, it is unnecessary because Darabont already did it, and the results were perfect.

Would The Shawshank Redemption Work As A TV Show?

The Shawshank Redemption Also Wouldn’t Work As A Series

There is also a chance for The Shawshank Redemption to follow Carrie’s footsteps and become a streaming series. Mike Flanagan has experience with great streaming shows, having made The Haunting of Hill House and more for Netflix. Now that he has a deal with Prime Video, he is making Carrie. According to Flanagan, he wouldn’t have made Carrie without a fresh idea on how to make it different. There might be a “different” way to make The Shawshank Redemption, but is it really necessary?

There could be a series based around the prison, but not involving the actual story itself, but that was sort of done in Castle Rock, which included the penitentiary. There really isn’t a need to get back the rights to do a movie based on just the prison, unless someone wanted to make something using The Shawshank Redemption for the тιтle. However, for the story itself, there isn’t enough to warrant a streaming series. It was a novella, and the Frank Darabont movie had already adapted that perfectly. It is best to leave this Stephen King story alone.

Sources: Rotten Tomatoes