Frank Darabont's masterpiece 'The Shawshank Redemption' still remains as the highest-rated movie on imdb even after so many years since its release.

'The Shawshank Redemption' is indeed a cinematic brilliance that never gets old, no matter how many times we watch it. Based on Stephen King's novella, the film revolves around a successful banker who gets imprisoned for lifetime in the charge of murdering his wife. Through the journey of some incredible characters like Andy, Red, Brooks etc., this film teaches numerous life lessons which linger with us forever.

Here are ten interesting trivia about 'The Shawshank Redemption':

The role of Andy Dufresne was first offered to Tom Hanks. As Hanks refused it because of his commitment to 'Forrest Gump' movie, the role then went to the actors like Kevin Costner, Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Johnny Depp and Charlie Sheen. But finally, Tim Robbins played the role and the rest is history.

In the opening scenes, we see a close-up shot showing Andy's hands loading the revolver to murder his wife. We see his hands again in the film, when he engraves his name into the wall of his cell. Actually, the hands are not those of Tim Robbins, but of the director Frank Darabont.

The prison we see in the movie is actually the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio which was closed in 1990. It was also used in movies like 'Air Force One', 'Tango', 'Cash' etc.

The original novella is titled as 'Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption. The makers of this movie shortened the title in order to avoid the confusion that it's gonna be a biographical movie on Rita Hayworth.

Morgan Freeman's nuanced performance as Red in 'The Shawshank Redemption' is considered as one of the finest performances ever in the history of cinema. However, the character is described as Irish, middle-aged and greying redhead in the novella.

Tim Robbins did a lot of hard works while preparing for his role Andy in this movie. In fact, he had spent numerous days and nights in the solitary confinement to understand the scenarios there.

Andy finally escapes to Mexico in the end of the movie. However, the scene wasn't really filmed in Mexico, but in a small island called Saint Croix near U.S.

The film was released as 'The Wings of Freedom' in Italy, 'Walls of Hope' in Israel, 'Life Imprisonment' in Spain, 'Rita Hayworth - The Key to Escape' in Finland and '1995: Fantastic' in Taiwan.

Made on a budget of $25 million USD, the film managed to earn only $18 million USD initially. Although it received the "flop" tag at that time, went on to become successful and gain cult status later.

Even after getting seven nominations, 'The Shawshank Redemption' didn't win a single award at the Oscars.