King tells the story of their meeting as Darabont requested to adapt the story: “I said, ‘Sure, Frank, I’d love it.’ He said, ‘Well, OK, how much?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t know, man. The director approached King about adapting the novella, and the horror hero had a quick and easy way for them to work together. He was so impressed with the short film that he allowed Darabont to make a “handshake deal” on adapting his 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption. The opportunity offered a great start for a young director, and it clearly impacted King. Darabont became one such baby when he adapted King’s 1978 story The Woman in the Mist into a 30-minute short that would come close to a nomination for an Academy Award. The project allowed his short stories to be adapted into screenplays for the price of only one dollar. In 1976, with a growing estate and seemingly no end to his talents, King decided to open up his work to the wider world as he began his ‘The Dollar Baby’ initiative.
It meant that the first-time feature film director Darabont actually had very little to offer in terms of cache.
In fact, King had already encountered success with countless other films based on his work, teaming up with some of the world’s greatest directors, with the likes of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining(which King hated) and Brian De Palma’s blood-soaked classic Carrie (which he loved) sitting among the most celebrated. Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption wasn’t the first title that King had been approached to turn into a screenplay.
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