Next to Mick Garris, the one other filmmaker most associated with adapting the work of Stephen King has to be Frank Darabont, first with the Academy Award nominated The Shawshank Redemption, then The Green Mile and finally the vastly underrated shocker The Mist. If you already knew all of that, then you'll learn plenty more stuff you didn't already know from this 5 part Post Mortem interview.
In Part 1, Mick and Frank discuss the current trend of sequels and remakes and how they both broke into the business working on horror sequels. (Both of them are credited for scripting The Fly 2!) In Part 2, Darabont talks about his process for adapting the work of Stephen King, including his controversial ending to The Mist and how people will always be a need for us to tell "stories", no matter how drastically the medium changes or evolves over the years. Did you know about Darabont's incredible upbringing coming from Hungarian parents who had fled Budapest during the failed 1956 Hungarian revolution? Part 3 delves into Frank's rarely talked about childhood.
In Part 4, Darabont talks about his first gig as a production assistant on Hell Night (starring Linda Blair!) and how pivotal it was to work in all departments of production as he worked his way up through the film business. Also, he discusses his first short film "The Woman In Red" based on Stephen King's short story and how that first started their collaborative relationship. Finally, Part 5 delves into Frank's long career as a writer spanning from what he felt went wrong with Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein through doing uncredited rewrite work on Steven Speilberg's Saving Private Ryan! All of these fascinating tidbits and more can be found in the videos below! Check out Post Mortem: Frank Darabont!
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