What Happened to FRANK DARABONT?

many people would claim that Frank Darabont has made the best Stephen King adaptations ever put on to film but did you know that over a decade before making the Sha Shank Redemption it would be Stephen King himself who helped Frank darabant become a filmmaker young Frank would use one of Stephen King's Infamous dollar babies where Stephen King would allow aspiring filmmakers to license one of his short stories for just $1 for Darabont he would adapt Stephen King's short the woman in the room which would actually be shortlisted for a nomination greatly considered for an Academy Award for best liveaction short film in 1983 despite not getting the nomination and not even really liking the short film somehow Stephen King became a fan of Frank Darabont and for $5,000 granted Darabont the writes to adapt another one of his short stories Rita Hayworth and the Sha Shank Redemption of course at this time Frank Darabont wasn't quite ready to tackle something as massive as that story just yet so he decided to make a name for himself polishing up good scripts and making them great eventually getting around to making his first theatrical film the Sha Shank Redemption which was followed by by other masterpieces of the big and small screen he's one of those talented fellas that you wish directed more films but maybe darabont's shorter directing resume is for a good reason maybe the Hollywood studio system was just not ready and could not tame such a wild beast of an artist he's one of the last tough guy directors dripping with beautiful toxic masculinity that allows his creative juices to flow oh and doesn't really give a whoy upsets in the process as long as he makes a good picture and boy howdy the dude can make a good picture in interviews he reminds me of those angry Outlaw filmmaking Legends like Sam Peck andpa or John Ford but his films are also able to capture the uplifting Spirit of filmmakers like Spielberg and cpra this cinematic Warrior of film and TV is not afraid to shout and scream at anyone in the way of his vision and unfortunately maybe that attitude has hurt his career but will his career rise up like The Walking Dead or has he broken free from the artless cages of the Hollywood system and found his real life happy ending on a beach with Morgan Freeman in Zano or is his happy ending going to turn out more like the end of the Mist so yeah what the happened to Frank Darabont but to truly understand what the happened to Frank darabant we must begin at the beginning in the beginning began when he was born on his birthday 1959 in a refugee camp in France after his parents fled Hungary during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution his family would settle in Los Angeles when he was 5 years old after Frank Darabont had worked as a production assistant on such iconic films as hell Knight the seduction and transcor and at this time he would make his $1 Stephen King baby short film but he would also be writing spec screen plays including one titled black cat run which he sold in 1986 but wasn't produced until 1999 as an HBO original film by this time darabant had become a decently respected writer and he would team up with hell Knight and the seduction producer Chuck Russell to write a wonderful remake of The Blob but sometimes writing a spec script isn't guaranteed money and sometimes you need money so Frank and Chuck took a gig riding a Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors the film would be called a rebound for the franchise creatively and would go on to be the third highest grossing Freddy flick so that's something that Nightmare on Elm Street 3 success allowed the duo to get their blob remake green lit which would be released in 1988 and sadly become a box office bomb but in recent years people are actually realizing how brilliant of a blob this is and even though the blob bombed Darabont was still considered a great punch-up guy if your screenplay needed to be punched up Frank would be hired to work on the screenplay for the Fly 2 as well as drafts of The Rocketeer and he wrote a never made sequel to Commando 1990 would see Darabont step behind the camera for his first feature film with the made for TV horror buried alive that aired on the USA Network the film received mixed reviews and was mostly forgotten about but Frank Darabont would continue making a name for himself with a writer Guild nomination for an episode of Tales from the Crypt he also wrote several episodes of the young Indiana Jones Chronicles in all that time working on all of these different projects there was still one Stephen King project that he wanted to make that he needed to make even though he almost didn't make it filmmaker Rob Riner also had some success adapting a Stephen King story into a successful film with the body or as we know it Stand By Me so director Rob Riner offered Frank Darabont $2.5 million for a chance to direct his own version of Rita Hayworth and the Sha Shank Redemption this Riner Redemption would have featured Tom Cruz as Andy and Harrison Ford as R even though Darabont liked riner's idea for the film he declined saying that he didn't want to defer his dreams in exchange for money and was afraid to die without ever having done anything that he actually set out to do yeah that's right the dude turned down 2.5 mil to keep Rob riner's chunky fingers off of the Sha Shank Redemption thank you Frank but Mr Riner he didn't sulk he actually helped Mentor Frank Darabont on the film and would help get Frank's Redemption actually made by producing it through Castle Rock [Music] entertainment the film was go into pre-production in January of 1993 and would eventually be released in September of 1994 where it was hailed by critics as one of the best prison-based films ever made with a lot of Praise thrown at darabont's script and his Direction yet the Sha Shank Redemption was not a runaway box office hit as you may expect given how popular the film has become nearly 30 years later it pulled in around 73 million off a $25 million budget but word of mouth was big and Warner Brothers took a chance on creating hundreds of thousands of video cassette copies of the film for rental across the United States this costly gamble paid off as the theatrical box office bomb the Sha Shank Redemption became the biggest rental title of that year by 1997 the Sha Shank Redemption would begin airing constantly on the TNT channel where the film Garner record-breaking numbers and that's actually where I saw sha Shank Redemption for the first time on TNT and spoiler alert but I don't know why you're watching this if you haven't seen the shash Shang Redemption but young stupid me actually thought the movie ended with him escaping from prison so I turned it off right there and still thought it was an amazing Masterpiece but it wasn't until years later when I watched the movie on DVD or something and found out that there was another ending Zano yep the Shashank Redemption received seven Academy Award nominations including a best screenplay adaptation nomination for darabond the film has gone on to be hailed by many as the greatest movie ever made and as we all know the Sha Shank Redemption is a drama based on a short story by Stephen King who is known for writing horror stories and it is this reason I think that the Academy of Science Fiction fantasy and horror films were confused used when they nominated sha Shank Redemption for best screenplay at their annual Saturn Awards but oh well and do you know who Frank darabond had to go up against that year himself that's right he was also nominated that year for co-writing Mary Shelly Frankenstein and yeah think about this sha shank was this dude's first theatrical film to direct his first movie was the greatest ever made Accord according to imdp sometimes not feeling the need to rush and do anything Darabont would wait 5 years before stepping behind the camera as a director again but in the meantime he took gigs as a script doctor working on such screenplays as the fan eraser and Saving Private Ryan to Keen eyed viewers you may have spotted Darabont as a ghost in The Shining miniseries in 1997 that Cameo came about when Darabont visited the set of the miniseries to inform Stephen King that he had decided to write and direct an adaptation of Stephen King's other prison-based story The Green Mile get it get it get it get it get it get it get it get it and I think it's kind of funny that this guy Darabont he's specifically special specializes in Stephen King prison movies nobody else directs Stephen King prison movies better than Frank darabond it's such a specific Niche genre but he's the master and it's a beautiful thing and unlike the Sha Shank Redemption The Green Mile became a huge success at the box office theatrically it would gross nearly 300 million worldwide off a $60 million budget while garnering strong reviews that praised darabont's filmmaking which was due to how much he truly believes in the material he puts on the screen just as with Shashank Awards would follow with Darabont receiving several nominations from various Awards groups including two Academy Award nominations for Best screenplay and best [Music] picture during the making of The Green Mile one of darabont's oldest high school friends presented him with a script that he wrote titled the beesu darabond absolutely loved the script comparing it to Old Frank kapra films and Darabont agreed that he would work on the film directly after finishing up Green Mile and Darabont is nothing if not a man of his word and 2 years later the beu hit theaters with a new name called The Majestic and with darabont's stock on the rise due to his massive success [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] time with his projects so it would be another six years before he stepped behind the camera to direct another film in the meantime he would help produce the Michael Man film collateral while also having cameos in his friends films such as John Carpenter's vampires and Peter Jackson's King Kong and around this time Frank also wrote up the first draft to what eventually became mutated into Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the cry skull and apparently Frank darabont's Indiana Jones 4 screenplay was pretty dang decent and Steven Spielberg loved it but it was George Lucas who was not digging what darabond was dropping so they told Frank thanks but no thanks and hired a bunch of fing CGI monkeys to rewrite it in 2007 Frank Darabont would uncharacteristically work on three projects in a single year first was producing and directing the pilot episode for the short-lived Jeff Goldblum starring NBC series Reigns while also directing a single episode of one of the best shows ever The Shield the thing with Frank Darabont films is that they tend to stand the test of time a lot of people even like the Majestic now they just needed a few years to digest but as much as the Sha Shank Redemption and The Green Mile are hailed as masterpieces his next and to date final Stephen King collaboration is also a masterpiece but for slightly different reasons than his prison flick the film is of course the Mist which has probably the most [ __ ] up ending of a movie in the history of movies while the film may be considered just a quote Creature Feature it is really so much more it delves deep into the psyche of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances es better than most other films that I can think of right now and when that ending hits it doesn't just hit because it's you know shocking it's truly heartbreaking because we have come to love these characters and we were there by their side through this whole adventure and just for it to end like that it's like I don't know it was like we pulled the trigger which triggered me and yeah all that is in Testament to darabont's writing and Stephen King's trust in darabont's adaptation ability because that ending was completely changed from the original novel all that [ __ ] up [ __ ] that's all darabont's [ __ ] up [ __ ] even Steven King couldn't think of something that Fed Up the Mist would receive mixed reviews that leaned mostly positive but it seemed like many critics didn't judge the film on its own merits instead they had to compare it to those other Stephen King Frank Darabont movies and when you do that yeah The Green Mile and sha shank they're they're going to be better but the Mist it's something different it needs to be looked at with new eyes new gross insect monstrous eyes luckily the Mist found a decent enough audience in theaters to give it a near 60 million box office gross off an $80 million budget and of course the film and its masterful ending of eventually years later became highly respected amongst the cinema snobby people and you know what it's actually much better in black and white Frank Darabont was doing those black and white Direct Cuts before it was cool cuzz yeah when it's in black and white you really feel like you're in an old sci-fi B movie and the CGI actually looks better it's a nice little nightmare but sadly 2007's the Mist as of this episode right now is Frank darabont's last theatrical movie that was 2007 y'all do the math that's a lot of numbers Darabont has continued to do punch-ups on screenplay such as law-abiding Citizen and Godzilla while also appearing as himself in two episodes of HBO's Entourage and that is what the happened to Frank darabant oh wait no it's not he actually did something else didn't he that's right in 2010 it would be frank darabant who would do all of the leg work to get the show The Walking Dead picked up by AMC Darabont would shop around this zombie show to set several networks before AMC picked it up and would then write and direct the show's pilot episode an episode that many still claim as one of if not the best episode in the entire series scoring Frank Darabont a Director's Guild nomination he would also write four of the six episodes of the series first season which is like you know its best season The Walking Dead was a massive hit right out of the gate and you would think the person largely responsible for that huge success would be rewarded but nope AMC decided to fire Mr Frank Darabont as the showrunner because they wanted to create double the number of episodes with a smaller budget quantity over quality and anyone who has watched The Walking Dead knows every season has like two really great episodes and the rest are kind of absolutely boring filler content had Frank Darabont stuck around I guarantee the quality of the show would not have dipped as far as it did this is only my opinion of course the show still has its passionate fans who are wonderful and and beautiful and great but they're also basically zombies themselves now Frank darabant didn't take his firing lightly however he sued AMC for 280 million buckaroos saying that he never received payment for develop fing the show and was wrongfully terminated without warning so that AMC wouldn't have to give him the pay raise agreed to for seasons 2 and three in his contract with AMC accusing Darabont of never meeting with other directors to discuss the tone of the series something that Darabont says he 100% did he even sent some emails to people working on the show that um you know show the tone that he was going for I'm going to sections from Min emails out of context now guys and gals I'm in a state of absolutely boiling rage right now congratulations you all accomplished what I thought was impossible you turned me into a raging a-hole thanks a lot you everybody especially our directors better wake the up and pay attention or I will start killing people and throwing bodies out the door [ __ ] you all for giving me chest pains because of this staggering [ __ ] incompetence blindness to the important beats I deserve better than a heart attack because people are too stupid to read a script and understand the words you need to pay attention to the [ __ ] script I even chose my goddamn commas for a reason why am I working so [ __ ] hard if you're shooting everything from some othering way that doesn't work I promise I'm not being hyperbolic and yeah Frank may have been a little mean there but the dude had a vision and they were [ __ ] it up I'm sorry in 2021 the two parties Darabont and AMC finally settled the case out of court for a reported 200 million with Darabont receiving future Revenue sharing for The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead and even though he didn't exactly have the best experience working on The Walking Dead television show that would not be the last time Darabont would work on TV in 2013 he would bring the novel LA Noir to TNT with the new title of mob City Darabont would write and direct four of the show's six episodes unfortunately mob city was not a ratings Juggernaut and was cancelled after just one season and sadly that is the last work Darabont has done to date and that was 2013 do the math it's like almost a decade right yeah it's been almost a decade since we have last been treated to anything by this great film maker this master of cinea he was in the running to direct the Huntsman but left the project due to creative differences Darabont would appear on a podcast by filmmaker Mick Garis where he said he felt beat down by the Hollywood Machine of course that doesn't mean he's gone forever in 2021 he revealed that he had written a script centered around the American Civil War that was based on an unproduced screenplay by Stanley cubrick of course it has never materialized because apparently the cost to produce this massive Darabont kubric Civil War epic thing is too great for any Studio of course with places like apple and other streamers throwing out massive bucks for projects by bigname filmmakers you know like scorsi or Ridley Scott maybe one of those streamers will be brave enough to give Frank Darabont a blank check to make his triumphant return to filmmaking and to be frank film making it needs Frank to be frank but you know what I am absolutely sure that one day we will see the name Frank darabant Grace our screens again because it is obvious the passion to tell unique stories and the best way possible is still in him and yes even though he didn't exactly get his way to make The Walking Dead the way he wanted to and the show certainly suffered because of that he still got 200 million buckaroos out of the deal so yeah it's for that reason and so many more that nobody should give a about what the happened to Frank darabant because he's doing just [Applause] [Music] fine [Music] ch [Music]

Channel: JoBlo Originals

Views: 18,597

Keywords: joblo videos, joblo, wtf happened to, wtf happened to this celebrity, wtf happened to this movie, wtf, joblo originals, frank darabont, the walking dead, shawshank redemption, frank darabont interview, frank darabont walking dead, frank darabont the mist, frank darabont twd, the shawshank redemption reaction, the green mile, mob city, the blob 1988, the mist, the blob, the mist ending scene, stephen king, nightmare on elm street 3 dream warriors, walking dead

Id: OdpS7sWpM2c

Length: 24min 8sec (1448 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 29 2024