55 Facts About Frank Darabont

1.

Frank Arpad Darabont was born on Ferenc Arpad Darabont, January 28,1959 and is a French-born American film director, screenwriter and producer.

2.

Frank Darabont has been nominated for three Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.

3.

Frank Darabont was born in a refugee camp in 1959 in Montbeliard, France.

4.

Frank Darabont's parents had fled Hungary for France after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, bringing his five brothers and four sisters, and three cousins.

5.

When Frank Darabont was still an infant, his family immigrated to the United States, settling in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles when Frank Darabont was five.

6.

Frank Darabont was inspired in his youth to pursue a career in film after seeing the George Lucas film THX 1138.

7.

Frank Darabont graduated from Hollywood High School in 1977 and did not attend college.

8.

Frank Darabont served at the concession stand and as an usher, and was grateful for the perk of getting to watch numerous films for free.

9.

Frank Darabont became involved in filmmaking by becoming a production assistant on such films as Hell Night, The Seduction, and Trancers.

10.

Frank Darabont sold his first screenplay titled Black Cat Run in 1986, but it was not produced for more than a decade, as a television film under the same name.

11.

Frank Darabont made his directorial debut with Buried Alive, a television movie with a $2,000,000 budget that aired on the USA Network in 1990.

12.

Frank Darabont followed this with an extended run as writer for George Lucas's television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

13.

Frank Darabont wrote two episodes of the television series Tales from the Crypt.

14.

Frank Darabont made good on the deal with Stephen King by writing and directing the film adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption.

15.

Frank Darabont planned to cast Tom Cruise in the part of Andy and Harrison Ford as Red.

16.

Frank Darabont seriously considered and liked Reiner's vision, but he ultimately decided it was his "chance to do something really great" by directing the film himself.

17.

At first Frank Darabont was reluctant to adapt the novel as a film, as its setting was too similar to Shawshank, but quickly changed his mind after reading the novel.

18.

Hanks and Frank Darabont first met at an Academy Award luncheon in 1994, and the two were eager to work on a project together.

19.

Stephen King said he had envisioned Hanks in the role and was happy when Frank Darabont mentioned his name.

20.

The film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture, and Frank Darabont was nominated for his second Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

21.

In 2001 Frank Darabont directed the film The Majestic, starring Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, and Laurie Holden.

22.

Frank Darabont worked with these actors frequently throughout his career.

23.

Michael Sloane, whom Frank Darabont had known since high school, wrote the script.

24.

Frank Darabont had originally wanted to direct The Mist even before he directed The Shawshank Redemption, but kept pushing it back.

25.

Frank Darabont thought they could help give the film a "more fluid, ragged documentary kind of direction".

26.

Frank Darabont helped create the designs of the creatures in the film, along with artists Jordu Schell, Bernie Wrightson, and the film's lead makeup artist Greg Nicotero.

27.

CafeFX was hired to do the film's special effects after Frank Darabont asked fellow director Guillermo del Toro who did the effects on his film Pan's Labyrinth.

28.

Frank Darabont developed and executive-produced the first season of The Walking Dead, the AMC series based on Robert Kirkman's comic book of the same name.

29.

Frank Darabont recalled that he had first come across the series in 2005, in a comic book store in Burbank, California.

30.

When Frank Darabont became interested, creator Kirkman called it "extremely flattering".

31.

Frank Darabont first initiated a deal with NBC for The Walking Dead, but was later declined.

32.

Frank Darabont eventually brought it to AMC, who picked it up based on the source material and Darabont's involvement.

33.

Frank Darabont wrote and directed the pilot and was executive producer of the first season, along with Gale Anne Hurd.

34.

In July 2011, Frank Darabont was fired from the position as showrunner.

35.

Frank Darabont discovered the book at LAX Airport and, after two days straight of reading it, decided to adapt it for television.

36.

Frank Darabont was very passionate about the project as he had always wanted to produce a film noir.

37.

Frank Darabont cast Jon Bernthal, whom he had worked with on The Walking Dead, in the lead role for the series.

38.

Frank Darabont held the rights to two other Stephen King stories, The Long Walk and The Monkey, neither of which he ever adapted.

39.

Frank Darabont was a script doctor for the Steven Spielberg films Saving Private Ryan and Minority Report.

40.

Frank Darabont produced the 2002 film The Salton Sea, starring Val Kilmer and Vincent D'Onofrio.

41.

Frank Darabont did a rewrite for Russell's film Eraser, they attempted to adapt a film of the 1930s pulp character, Doc Savage, and the two wrote an early treatment and were executive producers on the film Collateral.

42.

Frank Darabont has tried to produce film adaptations of the novels Mine by Robert R McCammon and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

43.

The film was met with mixed reviews and Frank Darabont called it the worst experience in his career as a writer as he had considered it the best script he had ever written, but that director Kenneth Branagh ruined it "every step of the way".

44.

In 2007, Frank Darabont directed an episode of The Shield titled "Chasing Ghosts".

45.

Frank Darabont directed and executive produced the pilot episode of Raines, starring Jeff Goldblum.

46.

Frank Darabont appeared in "First Class Jerk", the October 26,2008, episode of Entourage in which he propositions Vincent Chase to star in a TV show he is executive producing.

47.

Frank Darabont appeared in a September 12,2009, episode where he is the director of the film about Enzo Ferrari, who Vince is portraying.

48.

Frank Darabont was slated to direct the 2009 film Law Abiding Citizen, but left production due to creative differences with the producers.

49.

At the 2012 Austin Film Festival, Frank Darabont was awarded the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award for his contribution to cinema.

50.

In November of the same year Bob Weinstein revealed that he and Frank Darabont were developing a ten part television series based on Frank Darabont's 2007 film The Mist.

51.

Frank Darabont was hired to rewrite the script for the 2014 Godzilla reboot.

52.

In June 2014, it was reported that Frank Darabont was on the shortlist to direct The Huntsman: Winter's War, a sequel to the fantasy film Snow White and the Huntsman.

53.

However, Frank Darabont left the project in January 2015, citing creative differences as the cause.

54.

Frank Darabont revealed in a 2021 interview with Mick Garris that he had recently written a script for a film centred around the American Civil War, based on an unproduced screenplay by filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and historian Shelby Foote that Ridley Scott was attached to produce.

55.

Jeffrey DeMunn appeared in The Blob and Black Cat Run, both of which Frank Darabont wrote, Alexa Davalos appeared in the pilot episode of Raines that he directed and Amin Joseph first worked with Frank Darabont on an episode of The Shield titled "Chasing Ghosts".