You probably know Frank Darabont for his work on the first seasons of The Walking Dead, a show that singlehandedly revived the zombie genre. But before his work in TV, Darabont led high-profile movies over the span of two decades, working with esteemed actors like Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman, and Tim Robbins. A frequent collaborator of Stephen King, Darabont brought many of his stories to screen. If you are interested in Frank Darabont’s repertoire, here are five movies he directed that you should totally check out.
The Woman In The Room
Frank Darabont’s directorial debut, The Woman in The Room rarely gets a mention when people talk about the writer’s work. However, it’s the movie that essentially started his career in Hollywood. Darabont directed and wrote the screenplay for the movie, which was based on Stephen King’s short story of the same title. According to an interview the director did with Stephen King fansite Lilja’s Library, a young Frank Darabont was able to snag a Stephen King project as part of the latter’s Dollar Baby project, which allowed aspiring and beginning filmmakers and writers to transform his work on screen for just one dollar. “In 1980, I was 20 years old, working many miserable low-paid jobs just to survive and dreaming of a career in films someday. During that time I was a theater usher, telephone operator…man, I can’t even remember all the awful jobs I had back then. I even ran a forklift and did a lot of heavy lifting for an auction company that liquidated industrial machine shops. That was the year I approached Stephen King about The Woman in the Room, and I hadn’t even had my first job in movies yet! But I nonetheless decided I wanted to make a short film from his story, which I thought was lovely and deeply moving, so I wrote him a letter asking for his permission. I was shocked that he said yes. (I found out later about his “dollar baby” policy, which shows what a generous man he is. I doubt The Woman in the Room was the first dollar baby, but I’m certain it must be among the first wave of those films.)”
The Shawshank Redemption
More than 10 years after being Stephen King’s Dollar Baby, the novelist and Darabong would collaborate again on bringing The Shawshank Redemption to the big screen. The movie is based on King’s 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption and tells the story of a banker who, despite claiming innocence, goes to a maximum-security prison for the murders of his wife and her lover. The movie stars Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, and James Whitmore. Roger Ebert, reviewing the movie in 1994, wrote: “The Shawshank Redemption” is not a depressing story, although I may have made it sound that way. There is a lot of life and humor in it, and warmth in the friendship that builds up between Andy and Red. There is even excitement and suspense, although not when we expect it. But mostly the film is an allegory about holding onto a sense of personal worth, despite everything. If the film is perhaps a little slow in its middle passages, maybe that is part of the idea, too, to give us a sense of the leaden passage of time, before the glory of the final redemption.” While the movie was widely praised and continues to have a cult following, it bombed at the box office during its premiere, severely underperforming compared to the movies it competed with, including Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump. It nonetheless earned itself seven Academy Award nominations.
The Green Mile
Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, The Green Mile stars Tom Hanks, who had previously been considered to play the lead role in The Shawshank Redemption. The movie also features David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, Michael Clarke Duncan, James Cromwell, and Michael Jeter. Another movie by Darabont set in prison, the movie depicts the story of a death row prison guard who witnesses a series of supernatural events surrounding one of the inmates. The Green Mile received positive reviews during its premiere, particularly praising the performances of Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan. Reviewing the movie for the Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt wrote: “Despite fine performances by Tom Hanks and an excellent ensemble cast, The Green Mile looks like a tough sell for the holidays. Undoubtedly, the film will win admirers among moviegoers and critics and may perform well in ancillary markets.”
The Majestic
The Majestic is Frank Darabont’s first feature film not to be based on the work of Stephen King. Written by screenwriter Michael Sloane, The Majestic stars comedy legend Jim Carrey as a screenwriter who finds himself in a small town after a road accident caused him to have amnesia. Aside from Carrey, Bob Balaban, Brent Briscoe, Jeffrey DeMunn, and Amanda Detmer stars in the movie. While the movie was poorly received, it was still notable during the time for revealing to Hollywood that Jim Carrey can do something outside comedy. Prior to The Majestic, he had only been involved with comedy flicks. The movie would pave way for Carrey to appear in more serious movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Number 23. Bob Graham of the San Fransisco Chronicle reviewed The Majestic as follows: “Anybody who thinks Carrey isn’t capable of subtlety is in for a big surprise. At the same time, the movie pulls off the neat juggling act of paying tribute to a sense of wartime patriotism while making a defense of civil liberties.”
The Mist
Surprisingly, Frank Darabont’s last feature film is The Mist, which was released in 2007. Returning to bringing Stephen King’s novel’s to life on screen, Darabont directed, produced, and wrote the screenplay for the movie, based on the 1980 King novella of the same name. The movie starred Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, and Toby Jones. The Mist depicts the story of a group of people who get stuck inside a grocery store as a mysterious mist concealing deadly monsters envelope their town. Empire sang praises of Darabont’s foray into horror in The Mist, writing: “Traditionally, horror movies have almost acted as the entry-level exam for gifted filmmakers, a way to make their names before graduating to respectable material – just ask Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson. Refreshingly, with The Mist, Frank Darabont has gone the other way. Of course, he started out writing horror flicks, but this is a guy whose directorial career has largely been about conveying hope, joy, and carefully sculpted sentiment. But for his third take on Stephen King, after The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, Darabont has gone back to the well and come up with a tight, tense frightflick with more originality than a thousand Saws.”
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