Frank Darabont secured the film adaptation rights from author Stephen King after impressing the author with his short film adaptation of The Woman in the Room in 1983.
Just as a prison in Ohio stood in for a fictional one in Maine, the beach scenes shown in the final minutes of the film meant to portray Zihuatanejo, Mexico, were actually shot in the Caribbean on the island of St. Croix, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands.