Frank Darabont is credited for directing three of the very best Stephen King adaptations, but between 1994’s “The Shawshank Redemption” and 2007’s “The Mist,” the pulp maestro has rarely had an easy go of it.
If you’re wondering what could be so awful about making a movie that constantly flickers around the top spot on the IMDb’s ranking of the all-time greatest films, you need to remember that “The Shawshank Redemption” wasn’t a runaway success when it hit theaters in the late summer of 1994. Based on a novella from King’s celebrated “Different Seasons” collection, the film couldn’t be sold as a tale from the “King of Horror,” nor could it rely on star power given that Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman were typically viewed as ensemble actors. Its main selling point would be the reviews, and, well, critics didn’t initially deliver a chorus of raves.
Things didn’t really turn around for “The Shawshank Redemption” until it received seven Academy Award nominations, but that still wasn’t enough to give it a boost at the box office. Ultimately, its stature as a classic male weepie was acquired over time thanks to home video and many years of cable reruns. So by the time Darabont was ready to unleash his second King adaptation with “The Green Mile,” he was damn near a brand name unto himself.
And yet 25 years later, “The Green Mile” still stands as Darabont’s highest grossing movie by a considerable amount. His subsequent features, “The Majestic” and “The Mist,” fell far short of commercial expectations in 2001 and 2007 respectively, thus knocking him nearly back to zero as a features director. He needed a hit. Fortunately, one materialized in a buzzy screenplay by a then hot writer. Darabont signed on, and all signs pointed toward a course correction. Then it all fell apart.
Frank Darabont could not abide Law Abiding Citizen
In 2008, Kurt Wimmer’s lurid screenplay for “Law Abiding Citizen” was generating interest all over town. The revenge thriller about a man out for blood after the murderer of his family is allowed to walk free quickly locked in two sought-after stars in Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. It began to feel like an event movie when Darabont came on board to direct.
So why did F. Gary Gray wind up scoring a $127 million worldwide hit with it instead of Darabont?
The official story is that it was the dreaded creative differences that drove Darabont from the project, which he confirmed at the time with Ain’t It Cool News. But it was more than differences. It was a full-blown dispute that ended acrimoniously. Though I was writing for AICN at the time and had an open channel of dialogue with Darabont, I still don’t know what precisely went down (and considered it none of my business considering that I wasn’t explicitly covering the movie for the site). If I were to speculate, I’d say that a writer of Darabont’s caliber likely had rewrites in mind, and this didn’t sit well with the producers who liked the script as is. It’s a shame it didn’t work out because while I enjoy Gray’s movie as a down-and-dirty vigilante flick, it could’ve been a sharper, stranger “Death Wish” riff in the right hands.
Now for the heartbreaker: Darabont hasn’t directed a film since “The Mist,” and hasn’t signaled an interest in returning to features over the last 16 years. We miss you, Frank. (That said, the filmmaker has come out of retirement to direct two episodes of the upcoming final season of “Stranger Things,” so at least we have that to look forward to.)
