Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't yet watched the first four episodes of Stranger Things Season 5 via Netflix subscription. And if you somehow haven't seen The Shawshank Redemption yet...whaaat, and why not?! But also, spoilers for that.

Roughly a bazillion people watched the first four episodes of Stranger Things’ final season set the stage for a catastrophic conclusion, at least for certain evil-mongering characters who use alter egos to kidnap children. The fourth installment, “Sorcerer,” shockingly brought back Season 2’s Kali/Eight, finally gave Sadie Sink’s Max some screen time, and turned new fan-fave character Derek Turnbow from dipshit to delightful. You know what didn’t happen, though? A Shawshank Redemption reference that I’d have bet money on being in the ep.

The prediction? I’ll get to that more in full lower down, but I basically thought Finn Wolfhard’s Mike would get covered in shit at some point, which I realize sounds like random and unhealthy guesswork for a TV series. In hindsight, it does seem a bit silly, but that doesn’t diminish my ongoing feelings of dismay. Not so much that I was wrong, but that nobody took advantage of this clear path to an icky easter egg. Let's look at the evidence!

Clue #1: Frank Darabont's A Major Part Of Stranger Things Season 5

There wouldn't be any reason to bring up The Shawshank Redemption in reference to Stranger Things if it wasn't for the directorial efforts of the great Frank Darabont. The genre master not only helped bring The Walking Dead to TV (before a major falling out), but he also directed three of the best Stephen King adaptations out there, with Shawshank high on that list.

Notably, he hadn't helmed any films or TV episodes since 2013's one-and-done season of Mob City, but Matt and Ross Duffer coaxed him into getting behind the camera for not just one, but two of the lengthy Season 5 installments. Beyond the Duffers and producer Shawn Levy, Darabont is the only other director who was utilized for the final run.

To be clear, Frank Darabont did not direct "Sorceror," and was responsible for the third and yet-to-stream fifth episodes, with the Duffer bros. taking on Ep. 4. But to me, that just makes it more likely that the reference would have happened, since Darabont is probably too classy, non-dorky to reference his own work in such a way. Much easier to imagine the Duffers doing it themselves.

Clue #2: It's A Tunnel Escape In A Show That Vibes Hard On Stephen King

To be sure, this prediction is nothing without Frank Darabont, but he wasn't involved with the past four seasons, and Stranger Things' creators have never shied away from the idea that Stephen King was a major influence on their lives and the show itself. Granted, the more horror-based inspirations are clearer than others, but it doesn't break reality to think the Duffers also like King's more dramatic fare like the novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," which was released to the world at large through Different Seasons.

Plus, this episode involves something of a jail break, even if it's not an actual jail, as well as tunnels. I do realize that Robin made the very clear connection to The Great Escape and explained those ins and outs directly. That still didn't sway me though, for I just assumed that was meant as a distraction from the true movie reference waiting to be made.

Clue #3: Mike's Reaction To Multiple Incidents Was Some Form Of "Shit"

For whatever reason, Finn Wolfhard seemed to have been given a quota for Stranger Things' four-letter words, and his reaction to seemingly every moment that went awry in "Sorceror" was to say some version of "Shit." It occurred at least three times, and possibly more, and I don't recall that over-usage happening in the previous episodes.

One of those utterances came after Mike and Lucas started getting kids into the tunnels and out of the government's stronghold, when Wolfhard's character realizes that the bathroom's pipes are in danger of bursting. This should have been the smoking gun, as it were.

My Misguided Prediction: Mike Would Get Covered In Poop During The Escape, Andy Dufresne-Style

With all of the above details at play, I was fully expecting some Beetlejuice-esque logic where "shit" being said enough times causes reality to manifest it. I thought that there would be a slew of pipe-related malfunctions that would leave Mike, and possibly all of the other escapees covered from head to toe in gunky fecal matter.

The climax of The Shawshank Redemption sees protagonist Andy Dufresne having to crawl through shit-infested sewer pipes before he's able to get a true taste (and whiff) of freedom, where all of the filth is washed from him during a storm. It's catharsis incarnate for the character, which couldn't readily be replicated with Stranger Things' characters, but I still thought the Duffer brothers might get a kick out of covering some of their longtime stars in fake poop.

At this point, I will blindly assume that the Duffers wanted to put that reference into the show, but Frank Darabont warned them against it. If not that, then I'll assume there's a deleted scene where that was filmed and then removed from the final cut. Otherwise, there's just the idea that I was completely wrong, and we just can't have that.

Closing out the 2025 TV schedule in a huge way, Stranger Things' final season returns with the next three episodes on Thursday, December 25.

Conversations about rebooting the Elm Street franchise have been plentiful over the years, both before and after the lackluster 2010 effort, with Elijah Wood voicing interest, and fellow horror mastermind Mike Flanagan also having pitched ideas. None of those went very far, for reasons, but now my desire for a new Freddy Krueger has been rekindled by a most villainous Stranger Things familiar.

Jamie Campbell Bower, who brought Stranger Things’ big bad Vecna to life in Season 4, is definitely set to return in upcoming Season 5 episodes, but is currently promoting his latest genre release, a remake of the 1986 supernatural horror Witchboard. Having hit the 2025 release schedule on August 15, the updated occult flick was directed by Chuck Russell, who also happened to direct one of the most beloved slasher sequels of all time, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.

Speaking with CBR, Bower agreed to the notion that he would definitely return for another Witchboard movie if the opportunity arose, and then gave props to the director and more, saying:

For those who may not remember, The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption writer/director Frank Darabont returned from his behind-the-camera hiatus to helm two episodes of Stranger Things' final season, which will no doubt combine for a runtime longer than that of the average slasher movie. Oh yeah, Darabont also happens to be the guy who co-wrote A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors with Russell, Wes Craven and Bruce Wagner.

So like, is it just me, or do the stars seem to be aligning for a perfect team-up to finally prove that Freddy Krueger's legacy can continue without Robert Englund in the role? Chuck Russell is obviously still bringing his talents to the big screen, and the fact that Frank Darabont returned to directorial work for Stranger Things is possibly a sign that his creative juices are skewing bloody again.

Bower even used the words "absolute dream" to describe it! I mean, come on! It's not a perfect 1:1, but if the actor referred to the experience as a "nightmare," I don't think it would have better helped my argument.

I Hadn't Considered Jamie Campbell Bower For Freddy Krueger Before, But...I'm All In

My argument here could have easily just focused on Russell and Darabont reuniting for another Nightmare movie, given they also teamed up on 1988's The Blob remake, which is proof that they can succeed together with preexisting material. But the more I started thinking about Jamie Campbell Bower as a potential Freddy, I found no reasons to argue against it.

I'm admittedly not familiar with the entirety of Bower's filmography, so I guess it's possible he's played a role that would indicate he'd be a terrible Freddy, but I doubt it. He's certainly excelled at playing haunting creepsters as of late, as seen in Kevin Costner's western epic Horizon: An American Saga, where his villainous Caleb Sykes easily held the screen opposite Costner with his baritone rasp and his piercing eyes. Not quite a Freddy laugh with that guy, but it's understandable.

Regardless of other roles, Stranger Things' Henry Creel (or One or Vecna) is obviously the most overwhelming piece of evidence that Bower would rock out as Freddy. Henry is an unnerving monster both in human form and in Upside Down-monster form, with the latter proving how well he already act beneath a ton of makeup and prosthetics, which is vital.

Also, I mean, it's not for nothing that Henry Creel's father Victor was portrayed in Season 4 by — [checks notes] — ROBERT ENGLUND. Passing the torch is kind of already in the two actors' fictional bloodline. In my head, Englund and Bower spent hours before and after filming episoes shooting the shit about all things Nightmare on Elm Street, and that Bower wrote everything down, and has been dreaming of playing Freddy all of his life. And no, this isn't just me living vicariou...okay, you got me.

To clarify, if someone was able to make Englund immortal, free from bodily aches, and just generally willing to return to the role in the meantime, I'd still prefer him, because of course. But which dream deity to I need to reach out to and threaten in order to get the metaphorical wheels turning on a new Elm Street movie with Bower as the burned-up child killer?

If anyone does know, send me the name of that deity, and I'll also throw in an extra wish for Heather Langenkamp to want a Dream Warriors reunion with Russell and Darabont, without having to play either Nancy or herself.

While waiting for someone to put my wishes into action, Witchboard is currently in theaters, while Stranger Things Season 5 Part 1 will be available to stream via Netflix subscription on Thursday, November 27.

It's not unusual for directors to star in their own movies. Alfred Hitchcock famously made cameos in almost all of his movies and Quentin Tarantino appears in all of his in one way or another. It's rarer for a director to appear in a fellow director's movie. It's hardly unheard of, as we found plenty of interesting examples. So without further ado, here is our list of directors who appeared on other directors' movies.

Steven Spielberg - The Blues Brothers

Before the tragic accident on the set of The Twilight Zone, John Landis and Steven Spielberg were good friends. So good, in fact, that Spielberg showed up in a cameo in the Landis classic The Blues Brothers. Spielberg plays the Cook Country Accessor at the end of the movie who takes payment from Jake and Elwood.

David Lynch - The Fablemans

In a very meta moment, David Lynch plays another great director, John Ford, in Steven Spielberg's The Fablemans. The late Lynch didn't show up in movies often, even his own, so it's a fun moment in a movie by a legend, starring a legend as a legend.

John Landis - Spider-man 2

John Landis has twice done cameos in Sam Rami movies, both times appearing as a doctor, the most famous of which was in Spider-Man 2 where he plays a doctor killed by Doctor Octopus after performing surgery on the villain. It's a super quick moment and one that is easy to miss.

David Fincher - Being John Malkovich

David Fincher has occasionally popped into his own movies, including playing the voice of John Doe on the telephone so as to not give away the surprise later. He also has shown up in other directors' movies, specifically as a puppet expert in Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich.

Roger Corman - The Silence Of The Lambs

Legendary B-movie director Roger Corman has a habit of showing up in other directors' work. It makes sense as he's a huge hero to many filmmakers who grew up watching his movies. In Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs, Corman plays the FBI director in one scene.

George Lucas - Beverly Hills Cop III

Beverly Hills Cop 3 is a pretty terrible movie, though thankfully the franchise was redeemed decades later with Axel F. Still, there is a pretty funny cameo in the movie when none other than George Lucas pops into the movie as a disgruntled patron of the amusement park that is central to the story.

Tim Burton - Singles

Tim Burton is not a director that shows up on the other side of the camera very often. In fact he has fleetingly few acting roles, but he does appear in Cameron Crowe's Singles. Crowe also has a cameo himself in the film.

Sam Raimi - Miller's Crossing

Sam Raimi is a director with a lot of acting roles on his resume, in his own film and in the movies by friends of his. One such cameo is in Miller's Crossing, a movie by the Coen Brothers. Raimi also has a cameo in another Coen Brothers movie, The Hudsucker Proxy.

Gus Van Sant - The Canyons

Gus Van Sant has a bit more than just a cameo in The Canyons, a movie that flew way under the radar when it was released in 2013, starring Lindsey Lohan. Van Sant plays a psychologist in the movie and has more than a couple lines, unlike many on this list.

Quentin Tarantino - Sleep With Me

Quentin Tarantino is always happy to cast himself in his own movies, but even before he was one of the premiere directors in Hollywood, he was popping up in movies he didn't direct. In Sleep With Me, by director Rory Kelly, which came out a month before Pulp Fiction, Tarantino has a memorable moment as a chatty party guest who breaks down the movie Top Gun in a very unconventional way.

Martin Scorsese - Quiz Show

Martin Scorsese's most famous on screen moment is as a rider in Travis' (Robert De Niro) cab in his own movie, Taxi Driver. He also shows up in Qui Show, directed by Robert Redford.

Tobe Hooper - Sleepwalkers

Tobe Hooper is a horror movie legend for his work directing the slasher classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the 1970s. In 1992 he popped up in a cameo working alongside Stephen King in the adaptation of King's novel Sleepwalkers.

John Waters - Something Wild

Director John Waters has been in many of his own movies, but he occasionally shows up in other movies as well, like Something Wild by director Jonathan Demme in 1986. Waters plays a sketchy car dealer in the movie and is one of the most fun parts of the movie.

Amy Heckerling - Into The Night

1985's Into the Night was John Landis' return to directing after being cleared of manslaughter charges as a result of the on-set tragedy during the filming of The Twilight Zone movie. In the movie, another director, Amy Heckerling, shows up in a cameo as a waitress.

Jonathan Demme - That Thing You Do!

Appropriately Jonathan Demme, who had a number of directors appear in his films, plays a film director in That Thing You Do! It's a brief role, of course, and it is one of the only times the late Demme appeared in another director's film. Into the Night by John Landis being another.

Roger Corman - The Godfather Part II

Roger Corman, one of the most influential directors of all time had a few cameos over his career with one of the most memorable coming in The Godfather II, where he played one of the senators grilling Michael Corlene (Al Pacino) in the Francis Ford Coppola classic.

Spike Jonze - The Game

Before David Fincher returned the favor for Spike Jonze in Being John Malkovich, Jonze appeared in Fincher's The Game, one of the most underrated movies by a big-time director.

Wes Craven - Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back

The late Wes Craven appeared in movies or TV shows as an actor 24 times according to IMDB, though most of his movie appearances were in his own movies. One exception was when he appeared in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back playing a version of himself directing a cartoonish version of Scream.

Frank Oz - Spies Like Us

Frank Oz has appeared as an actor in a bunch of movies, including The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Knives Out, not to mention all his puppet and voice work over the years. One of his best cameos came in Spies Like Us where he played the proctor of a civil service exam. It's truly a classic and maybe the funniest moment in the movie.

Cameron Crowe - Minority Report

Cameron Crowe has a very brief cameo as a man on riding public transportation in Minority Report by director Steven Spielberg. If you blink - or aren't sure what he looks like - you're sure to miss the moment, but it's there. In fact, another Cameron, Cameron Diaz, is in the background of the same scene.

Robert Downey, Sr. - Boogie Nights

In his day, Robert Downey Sr. was pretty famous. Of course, that fame has been eclipsed by his son, but that doesn't mean he did carry a lot of respect within the industry even late in his life. Like when Paul Thomas Anderson worked him into a cameo in Boogie Nights.

Frank Darabont - King Kong

For many, The Shawshank Redemption is the best movie of the 1990s. It's director, Frank Darabont, doesn't make a cameo in Shawshank or any of his other movies, but he is very briefly in Peter Jackson's King Kong. It's another "blink-and-you-will-miss-it" kind of role.

Lawrence Kasdan - As Good As It Gets

Writer and director Lawrence Kasdan is most famous for writing both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He's also directed movies like Grand Canyon, The Big Chill, and Silverado. On rare occasions, he's taken acting roles like he did in As Good As It Gets, by director James L. Brooks of Simpsons fame. Kasdan plays a psychologist in the movie.

James Cameron - The Muse

The Muse, directed by Albert Brooks, features a handful of cameos by famous directors including Martin Scorsese and Rob Reiner. In a rare appearance on the other side camera is also director James Cameron, who only has a few acting credits to his name.

Mel Brooks - The Muppet Movie

it's certainly not surprising to see Mel Brooks on the big screen, but it is rare to see in a movie that he didn't write and direct. That's part of what makes his cameo in The Muppet Movie so much fun. The legendary EGOT winner plays the evil Professor Krassman who is working to control the minds of frogs. It's worth noting that despite his delightful performance, it's not one that contributed to his EGOT.

Eli Roth - Inglourious Basterds

Eli Roth is as much an actor as he is a director, though in recent years he's concentrated on the latter. Sure he appears in his own films, but he's also been a collaborator with Quentin Tarantino a couple of times, first in Death Proof and then in a more prominent role in Inglourious Basterds.

Jim Jarmusch - Sling Blade

Director Jim Jarmusch has a unique style as a director and so it makes sense he would appear in a movie with its own unique angle, Sling Blade, by director and actor Billy Bob Thornton. Jarmusch plays the server at a food truck in the movie, serving up French fried potaters.

David Cronenberg - Jason X

David Cronenberg has a long history with the Friday The 13th franchise, having directed an episode of Friday the 13th: The Series in 1988. He shows up in a cameo in Jason X.

John Sayles - Malcolm X

John Sayles has directed some great movies over the years including Eight Men Out and Passion Fish. He's also occasionally done a bit of acting, mostly in cameos like as a memorable FBI agent in Spike Lee's classic Malcolm X.

Werner Herzog - Jack Reacher

German director is never shy about being in front of the camera as he often appears in his own films and occasionally acts in other stuff, like playing a wonderful role on The Mandalorian on Disney Plus. He also makes a great cameo in the Tom Cruise-led Jack Reacher from 2012.

Martin Brest - Fast Times At Ridgemont High

Before Martin Brest hit the big time as a director of such '80s classics as Beverly Hills Cop and the criminally underrated Midnight Run, he scored a small acting role as a coroner in Fast Times At Ridgemont High by director Amy Heckerling.

Orson Welles - The Muppet Movie

Mel Brooks has a fairly substantial role in The Muppet Movie, but he's not the only director to appear in the movie. Hollywood legend Orson Welles also appears in the movie. Welles was a huge fan of Jim Henson and the Muppets and worked with them on more than one occassion as well.

As a kid, my parents’ movie library was an important resource for my cinematic education. And you could bet that we had a copy of The Shawshank Redemption on VHS, just waiting for me to eventually one of the best ‘90s movies to ever exist. Upon rewatching Frank Darabont’s iconic Stephen King adaptation, I certainly had some thoughts, and they further proved why this movie has endured.

I’m Kind Of Surprised Andy Dufresne Was Even Convicted

I know if Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) doesn’t get convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, there’s no Shawshank Redemption. But between our protagonist’s profession, and the infidelities being visited upon him, do you seriously mean to tell me a 1950s jury wouldn’t side with these implied actions?

I Can’t Think Of Anyone Else Playing Andy Or Red

Here’s a piece of Shawshank Redemption trivia you may not have known: Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford were among the potential pairs considered to play Andy and Red. I’m all for considering “what if…” scenarios when it comes to classic films, but I honestly can’t think of anyone else matching the chemistry of Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman’s friendship on screen.

The Shawshank Redemption’s Casting Game Has Always Been Strong

Every time I watch this movie, I swear I notice new actors that I either forgot or hadn’t noticed were part of the cast. This time around I “discovered” that Robocop and E.R. vet Paul McCrane was one of the guards, and was reminded that 24’s Jude Ciccolella was also a screw at Shawshank. Meanwhile, every go-round reminds me how I'll always recognize Jeffrey DeMunn after his short but powerful turn as the lawyer who sends Andy up the river.

Stephen King Knows How To Write Grounded Adult Fairy Tales

While Red (Morgan Freeman) delivers the line “Prison is no fairy tale world” in The Shawshank Redemption, I still consider it an example of realism meeting such morally tinged fables for adults. The fact that Stephen King would not only go on to write The Green Mile as a sort of “Shawshank meets magical thinking” heartbreaker, with Frank Darabont returning for its 1999 adaptation, only proves my point.

Bob Gunton’s Introduction Is So Subtly Chilling

Throughout the entirety of this prison drama, we see Bob Gunton's Warden Samuel Norton barely raise his voice, except for when he discovers Andy’s escape. Revisiting his chilling introduction through Andy Dufrense’s arrival at Shawshank, I was reminded that vocal hysterics are no match for wielding a bible, and knowing how to hurt someone with just a nod.

Jake Is One Of The Many Clever Ways The Passage Of Time Is Shown At Shawshank

Most movies show time passing with either obvious dialogue or handy title cards. There are moments in The Shawshank Redemption where dialogue helps contextualize when we are in the story, but it’s never clunky. Also, with the added device of Jake the crow growing from a baby to a full-grown buddy, we’re shown progress without needing to put a calendar right under our noses.

Clancy Brown Plays The Line Between Menace And Authority To A Tee

When your kids are old enough, show them The Shawshank Redemption, then a random episode of Spongebob Squarepants. It’ll blow their minds by connecting Mr. Brown’s roles of Byron Hadley and Mr. Krabs, and it’s only another example of versatile performers filling Frank Darabont’s cast. While he’s not always turned up to 11, the shifts between unchecked menace and simple authority are so seamless.

I Wish I Could Tell You Andy Dufresne's First Encounter With The Sisters Wasn’t Tragic

One of the emotional moments that never fails to maintain its tragedy is when Bogs (Mark Rolston) and the rest of The Sisters gang up on Andy in the prison laundry. We don’t see the brutality, relying on Morgan Freeman’s narration to confirm that the worst had indeed happened. Each time that scene comes on, expect your heart to sink.

The Roofing Crew Scene May Be The Best Scene In The Shawshank Redemption

If there is one scene that ties all of The Shawshank Redemption’s perfection into a subtle package, it’s when Andy and his fellow prisoners enjoy that cold bohemian beer after tarring a roof. It’s idyllic, visually stunning, and gives the audience the same temporary moment of unbridled joy as Andy Dufresne. Other moments may be more pronounced, but the joy truly sneaks up on you every time, even if it’s a consequence of Brooks Hadley threatening to cause Andy “accidental” harm.

Thomas Newman Really Poured His Heart Into The Shawshank Redemption Score

Andy's escape into the rain. Red's arrival on the beach in Zihuatanejo. Brooks' sad end. All of those moments are cinematic history in The Shawshank Redemption, and their perfection is aided by composer Thomas Newman's emotionally charged musical score. Good luck trying to drive if "Brooks Was Here" comes up on shuffle.

The Shawshank Redemption Helped Me See Beyond Stephen King’s Horror Writing

Growing up, I was introduced to Stephen King as “The Master of Horror.” That image only grew through my eventual initiation through watching miniseries like 1990’s IT. But when I saw that The Shawshank Redemption was written by the same man who masterminded such frights, it was a watershed moment that helped me look past the stereotype and love the man’s work even more.

If Anyone Should Have Remade The Stand, It Should Have Been Frank Darabont

Mick Garris’ 1994 miniseries adaptation of The Stand, in my mind, has never been topped. I’ve slowly slogged through the 2020 Paramount+ remake, and with all due respect to the talent involved, it pales in comparison. But now that I’ve rewatched The Shawshank Redemption, I can’t help but wish that Frank Darabont’s Randall Flagg easter egg led to an alternate universe where he got to do his thing with the epic clash between the disciples of The Walkin’ Dude and Mother Abigail.

Brooks’ “Easy Peasy” Line Holds Up, Even If It’s Of Questionable Taste

“Easy peasy, Japanese-y.” I know it’s not a terribly offensive line, but hearing the sweet Brooks Hadlen (James Whitmore) utter that line always gave me pause. Upon this most recent viewing, however, I realized that this line is another clever way of showing character. Thanks to the institutionalization of Brooks, we get a window into what the world was like when he was a free man; back when that sort of phrase was probably more prevalent.

Andy’s Story Doesn’t Forget To Include Moments Of Levity

I’ll never look at a copy of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo without thinking of William Sadler, Tim Robbins, and Morgan Freeman debating where to file it in the prison library. Humor and warmth go hand in hand with tragedy and tears in The Shawshank Redemption, allowing for organic breaks from the harsh realities of incarceration. Frank Darabont’s sensibilities as the writer/director of this film are sharp as the rock hammer Andy uses to get his freedom, knowing when to lean into either extreme.

No Letter Writing Campaign Could Ever Beat Andy Dufrense’s Quest For Books

A former friend of mine and I used to love referencing the moment when Andy Dufrense petitioned his local government officials for better resources in Shawshank’s prison library. As someone who loves a good story where a dedicated fanbase gets something done through letter-writing, I have to say that Dufrense’s triumph is probably the greatest example of this time-tested form of protest winning the day.

How In The Name Of Castle Rock Did The Shawshank Redemption Bomb At The Box Office?

The weekend of September 23, 1994, had some pretty decent movies in the box office top 10…and somehow The Shawshank Redemption wasn’t one of them. That’s right, the only reason we’re still talking about this picture is thanks to video rentals and constant airings on TNT in the years that followed. How did people let this happen?!

Shawshank Is A Masterclass In Patient Storytelling

In a little under two and a half hours, you really feel like you’ve gotten to know Andy Dufresne and some of his pals at Shawshank State Prison. It consistently amazes me that I can still feel this way about a movie I’ve watched frequently over its three decades of existence. There’s never a moment where it feels like you could either skip or fast forward to the next, putting the pacing in that sweet spot where you don’t want it to end, but can’t think of anything to add.

William Sadler Really Is One Of The Best Actors We Have

I originally thought that The Shawshank Redemption proved that William Sadler was one of the best character actors on the scene. Upon further thought, I'd say he's one of the best performers out there, period. The dude's range has seen him hang with the Crypt Keeper, tangle with John McClane, and try to reap the souls of Bill and Ted. Watching him as Heywood always puts a smile on my face, because how can you begrudge a man just listening to his Hank Williams records?

Brooks’ Epilogue Still Crushes My Heart Every Single Time

You don't even have to show a person the entirety of this film to bring them to tears. While having the background on Brooks' character does make his eventual fate all the more tragic, you could merely show them his final scenes on the outside of Shawshank. No matter how many times I see James Whitmore play the end to his arc, I always hope that Jake found Brooks somehow, somewhere far away from that pain.

This Movie Pivots Perfectly Between Emotional Ups And Downs

In the span of a handful of minutes, The Shawshank Redemption goes from Brooks’ tragic suicide to Andy’s triumphant book delivery, which then turns to our humble bank manager’s solitary confinement. Just those moments piled on top of each other are an emotional roller coaster, but they all land perfectly, without losing a step to any potential tonal whiplash.

Frank Darabont Truly Understands Stephen King’s Work

Adapting The Green Mile into a Tom Hanks-starring tear-jerker was the next step in Frank Darabont’s King canon journey, but giving The Mist its soul-crushing ending was probably the greatest sign that Darabont truly understands Stephen King’s work. Especially because according to his own account, Frank Darabont was inspired by King’s original text to get to that traumatizing finale.

You Could Frame That Shot Of Andy Escaping The Tunnels

The moment that Andy Dufrense escapes those tunnels of…waste in The Shawshank Redemption, he bathes in the rain of liberation in a moment you could practically frame and hang on your wall. Considering it went on to become the original poster art for the 1994 release campaign, I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought so.

How Is This Picture Only 142 Minutes?

There is no way that The Shawshank Redemption is only a couple minutes short of two and a half hours. It never feels anything shorter than perfect, which is honestly thanks to the pacing of the storytelling and every factor being top-shelf. Honestly, this is probably why The Green Mile would eventually be allowed to slightly exceed the 3-hour mark when it was released.

The Shawshank Redemption Counts As A Heist Movie

I never really thought of Andy Dufresne’s antics as a secret heist movie, but that’s exactly what I came away thinking this time out. Years before Danny Ocean and his ten friends would knock off Las Vegas, Andy used accounting, knowledge of the banking system, and some geological know-how to make his great escape. Is it too late to give Andy a role in the Ocean’s Eleven prequel?

Tommy Williams’ Fate Is Even Crueler Than That Of Brooks Hadlen

If anyone got a worse deal than Brooks Hadlen, it had to be Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows). Sent to prison for burglary, he wasn’t nearly as hardened as some of the criminals who walked the halls of Shawshank State Prison. Yet thanks to his ability to exonerate Andy Dufresne, the young man who could have had a bright future was taken out with another one of Warden Norton’s patented nods.

Roger Deakins’ Cinematography Helped Make This A Timeless Classic

Everyone knows that cinematographer Roger Deakins is a GOAT when it comes to his craft. The Shawshank Redemption is a key piece of proof as to how he’s maintained such a reputation, as his eye helps this picture evade any sort of signs of aging. It looks timeless, and feels just as preserved through never being approached as a “‘90s movie.”

Without Question, Shawshank Is A ‘Remote Drop’ Movie

Thanks to Christopher Nolan’s love for Talladega Nights, the world now knows to call something you can never turn away from on TV a “remote drop” movie. The Shawshank Redemption is absolutely such a gem, as no matter what point in the story you’re at, no matter how many times you’ve seen it before, you’re in for the duration once it’s caught your eye.

Frank Darabont Might Actually Get Me To Watch Stranger Things Season 5

I haven’t cared about Stranger Things since completing Season 2, but have kept up with the series as a responsible journalist. I’ll do the same when its final season debuts, but knowing that Frank Darabont came out of retirement to direct a Season 5 episode has given me a smidgen of incentive to finish the journey.

I Can’t Believe The Shawshank Redemption Almost Didn’t Show Us Andy And Red’s Reunion

It took notes from a test screening, and the reluctance of Morgan Freeman, to give The Shawshank Redemption an ending where we actually saw Red and Andy reunite on the shores of Zihuatanejo. I refuse to accept a world where that true moment of redemption doesn’t exist.

The Shawshank Redemption Is Still A Perfect Movie

A little over a decade ago, I wrote about perfect Shawshank moments in a bid to show that I felt it was a perfect movie. I stand by my feelings to this day, and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon.

How Did Forrest Gump Win Best Picture In 1995?

The 67th Academy Awards in 1995 saw Tom Hanks’ bittersweet nostalgia trip Forrest Gump winning Best Picture. The rest of the field was occupied by Pulp Fiction, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Quiz Show, and The Shawshank Redemption. Is anyone else ready to send someone to Shawshank for letting this happen?

This Is One Of The Most Rewatchable Films In History

If The Shawshank Redemption was a storybook, I imagine I’d have several copies that are worn to varying degrees. It’s something you can always return to and enjoy freshly while reflecting on those peaks and valleys of emotion that pop up along the way. Which reminds me...I'm long overdue to pick up the 4K disc, even if the cover art isn't the gorgeous Drew Struzan poster that adorned the Blu-ray set.

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things can’t come soon enough! After production was impacted by the writers and actors' Strike in 2023, it was confirmed this past January that filming for Season 5 had begun. Now, as if we needed yet another reason to be excited for this final batch of episodes, The Shawshank Redemption’s Frank Darabont has been "dragged" out of retirement to direct some episodes, and I love his reasoning for joining the show.

While it'll be sad to say goodbye to one of Netflix’s best shows, I have a feeling Stranger Things’ fifth season is going to be special. I mean, Terminator icon Linda Hamilton is joining the cast, and fans have been promised that major story arcs will be resolved. So the notion of the man who directed one of the best Stephen King movies being in the mix just makes me all the more hyped. Frank Darabont is reportedly helming what The Daily Beast refers to as key installments of ST. Darabont explained to the outlet that he was personally a fan of the show, but his reason for joining is deeper than that:

It must have been such an amazing opportunity for the Oscar nominee to direct episodes of a series that he and his wife love to watch. He absolutely makes a great point about Stranger Things having a lot of heart, too. Amid all the spectacle the Duffer Brothers' show provides, it keeps its characters at the forefront. It's the joy, sorrow and action they all experience that makes it so heartbreaking for fans whenever major ST character deaths occur, after all. I love that the Green Mile helmer can see the depths of the show.

Considering how inspirational The Shawshank Redemption is, it’s no wonder Frank Darabont is a fan of projects that are all about heart. Despite the prison drama being about an innocent man receiving a life sentence, it’s still an example of a highly rewatchable movie due to its strong messages about the presence of hope when it’s most needed. The budding friendship between Andy and Red also makes it sentimental. I wouldn’t be surprised if any of those feel-good themes fit into Darabont's Stranger Things episodes.

The Golden Globe-nominated filmmaker's last worked in TV when he directed episodes of the L.A. noir series Mob City that aired in 2013. As for whether the Walking Dead helmer will continue working after ST he told The Daily Beast, “Who knows?” As he admitted how much he missed being on set compared to the entertainment business as a whole, the director said he knows he’s still got time to decide on his career trajectory.

If Stranger Things can encourage a prominent director like Frank Darabont to come out of retirement due to having "so much heart", that speaks to the immense time and care that's gone into making the show. Should Darabont bring to the Emmy award-winning series what he brought to Shawshank, I have a feeling we’ll surely experience love, laughter and tears while watching his episodes.

The highly anticipated fifth and final season of Stranger Things is set to premiere sometime amid the 2025 TV schedule. In the meantime, fans can stream the first four seasons using a Netflix subscription.

The questionable endings for some of Stephen King’s biggest works number among horror literature’s most debate-worthy elements. And the discussions don’t just end at the page, either, with some of the worst live-action adaptations of his books and stories coming down to botched conclusions. Frank Darabont’s The Mist holds the distinction for having one of the most polarizing resolutions of any Hollywood effort, which is made all the more noteworthy for going in a completely different direction from the source material. But as it turns out, King actually was indirectly responsible for inspiring the 2007 film’s dour denouement. 

For those unaware, Stephen King’s novella The Mist caps off with something of an open ending, with the surviving protagonists heading in the direction of Hartford with the hopes that there’s salvation to be found. The film, on the other hand, features a far more concrete ending, in which the army arrives to save the day and kill all the deadly creatures, though not before Thomas Jane’s David has mercy-killed his son and others. It’s extremely dark and depressing, but certainly fits the mood of the film.

Stephen King himself has praised the ending, putting all of the impetus for it in Darabont’s metaphorical hands. But in an interview with Hans-Åke Lilja, as collected in The Stephen King Companion, Frank Darabont shared the real story behind where the ending came from, citing the novella’s own text as the biggest influence. In his words:

Granted, Stephen King writes more words in a year than many people write in their lifetimes, so it’s no surprise to hear that he can’t keep every single phrasing in mind decades after the fact. But I can only assume that Frank Darabont has felt more than a bit of pride over the years, knowing that he more or less fooled King into enjoying his own idea without realizing it. 

Darabont made it clear that he had no intention of adding any of his own preconceived ideas about how the story should end, and relied on his instinct of using the source text to guide him. He continued:

It’s not quite irony or poetic justice, but there’s something special about Frank Darabont having beautifully adapted two of King’s most beloved non-horror works in The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, only to come back around years later and deliver the most devastating gut-punch of them all. 

We can only hope that all of the upcoming Stephen King adaptations, from Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck film to Max’s Welcome to Derry series, all figure out the best way to wrap things up without any murder-suicide pacts coming into play. While waiting for more upcoming horror movies, The Mist can be streamed now with a Philo subscription. 

Some filmmakers require time to find their voice. They have to make a few simply "ok" features before having the skills required to make their masterpiece. But that's not the case with the directors featured on this list. These folks quickly figured out what they could do with a camera, and they produced magic with their first feature.

It's a terribly hard thing to do, but here are 32 directors who made great films on their very first try.

Orson Welles – Citizen Kane

A lot of incredible films are highlighted on this list, but Citizen Kane is special given that in addition to being Orson Welles’ first feature, it’s considered by many to be the greatest movie all time. The hunt for the meaning behind a publishing titan’s last word is endlessly compelling and a fascinating examination of the soul corruption that comes with a rise to power.

Quentin Tarantino – Reservoir Dogs

Before making modern and instant classics like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, the legend of Quentin Tarantino began with the phenomenal Reservoir Dogs. The sharp dialogue, the non-linear storytelling, the tense violence and the needle-drop centric soundtrack all instantly confirmed that Tarantino was a talent to watch.

Jordan Peele – Get Out

It came as a shock when comedian Jordan Peele announced that he was shifting to a new phase of his career, as he wanted to pursue his true passion: directing horror movies. It was hard to know what to make of the decision at the time, but Peele has since established himself as one of the industry’s greatest genre filmmakers, and it all started with the stunning Get Out. It’s scary, layered, and the big third act twist never loses its impact.

Spike Jonze – Being John Malkovich

Spike Jonze wasn’t exactly inexperienced when he took the helm of Being John Malkovich as his first feature, as he had established himself as a genius talent in the world of music videos, but that doesn’t take anything away from his accomplishments. It’s a wild, strange, and perfect execution of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s genius and cerebral script, and both the design and cinematography make it unforgettable.

Sidney Lumet – 12 Angry Men

It requires incredible skill to direct a film that almost entirely takes place in a single room and juggles 12 different characters with different perspectives… but there’s a reason why Sidney Lumet is considered one of history’s greatest filmmakers. The basic description of 12 Angry Men doesn’t sound particularly cinematic, but it grips you from the start, and keeps you fascinated throughout – particularly thanks to one of Henry Fonda’s greatest performances.

Joel & Ethan Coen – Blood Simple

Joel and Ethan Coen are masters of crime fiction, and they proved that instantly in the start of their careers as feature filmmakers. Blood Simple is a tense neo-noir that comes with all of the trimmings of the genre – from the chiaroscuro lighting to a brilliant femme fatale turn from Frances McDormand – and M. Emmett Walsh is a force as the relentless Loren Visser.

Rob Reiner – This Is Spinal Tap

Few filmmakers have had runs like what Rob Reiner accomplished in the 1980s/1990s, sequentially making Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery and A Few Good Men, but his genius as a director was first established with 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap: a hilarious rock n’ roll mockumentary widely considered to be one of the greatest comedies of all time.

Sam Raimi – The Evil Dead

In the late 1970s/early 1980s, Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell were college students determined to make their first ever feature, and traveled from Michigan to a dilapidated cabin in Tennessee to make The Evil Dead. The production of the film was an absolute nightmare, but the juice was very much worth the squeeze, as the movie exists as a testament to brilliant imagination, and it is an important classic in the history of the horror genre.

Frank Darabont – The Shawshank Redemption

After writing a brilliant adaptation of Stephen King’s novella “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption,” Frank Darabont actually took a major pay cut so that Castle Rock Entertainment would allow him to make The Shawshank Redemption his directorial debut. This turned out to be a legendary move that has cemented Darabont in cinematic history, as the movie is one of the most beloved of all time and an antidote to cynicism.

John Singleton - Boyz n The Hood

With his directorial debut, John Singleton captured the perspective of an underrepresented audience on the big screen – crafting a Stand By Me-esque coming-of-age story about life in south central Los Angeles. In one of his earliest roles, Cuba Gooding Jr. demonstrates incredible talent alongside Ice Cube and Morris Chestnut, but it’s Laurence Fishburne’s Furious Styles for which the film will always be remembered.

Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman

Emerald Fennell made quite an impression in 2020 with the debut of Promising Young Woman – a primal scream of a movie that captures the horrors that women experience in our modern world and comes together as a darkly comedic revenge thriller. Carey Mulligan’s performance is wicked, and it sports a finale that leaves the audience breathless and mind-blown.

Dan Gilroy – Nightcrawler

Jake Gyllenhaal is unquestionably one of the greatest actors of his generation, and Nightcrawler sees him let off the leash to showcase his phenomenal cinematic presence. Dan Gilroy was an experienced screenwriter prior to making his directorial debut, and one can understand why he wanted to make this movie himself: it’s a vicious, Taxi Driver-esque look at crime scene videography and a stunning and cutting commentary on “if it bleeds, it leads” culture in local journalism.

George A. Romero – Night Of The Living Dead

There aren’t exactly a lot of filmmakers who successfully launched an entire new subgenre with their first feature, but that’s exactly what George A. Romero did with Night Of The Living Dead. The zombie film was a shocking standout upon its original release – featuring a Black actor as its lead and a series of nightmarish scenes of horror – and its genius is no less apparent today.

Rian Johnson – Brick

Long before wowing us with his ensemble-driven Benoit Blanc mysteries Knives Out and Glass Onion, Rian Johnson stunned cinephiles as a first-time director with Brick. It’s a stylized neo-noir that stands out with its high school backdrop and young characters, and it dazzles with unyielding tension, unique dialogue, and a terrific third act reveal.

Tom Hanks – That Thing You Do!

Admit it: even just seeing the title of That Thing You Do! has immediately gotten the eponymous song stuck in your head. But on top of that track being two minutes and 50 seconds of peppy greatness, the film is a fantastic tale about a one hit wonder that pops thanks to Tom Hanks’ excellent direction and a delightful ensemble cast.

David Lynch – Eraserhead

It didn’t take long for David Lynch to tell cinephiles what he is all about. The auteur filmmaker established his nightmarish, cerebral sensibilities from the get-go with Eraserhead – which is a confident work from the first time director and paved the road for further masterpieces like Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks.

Amy Heckerling – Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Amy Heckerling would easily be in the Coming-Of-Age Movie Hall Of Fame if Clueless were the only film on her filmography, but it was 13 years earlier that she made one of the genre’s all-time greatest titles as her directorial debut: Fast Times At Ridgemont High. There is so much to love about this film, from the radical Jeff Spicoli, to the drama of the relationship between Stacy and Mark, to the sounds of The Cars’ “Living In Stereo.”

Destin Daniel Cretton – Short Term 12

It’s a remarkable thing when a film, a series of images mixed with sound rapidly displayed to show movement, can touch your soul, but that’s something that Destin Daniel Cretton’s powerful directorial debut does – centering on the staff of a residential treatment facility. In retrospect, the ensemble cast in this one is beyond outstanding (including Brie Larson, Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek, LaKeith Stanfield, and Stephanie Beatriz), and their talents are on full display.

Patty Jenkins – Monster

Patty Jenkins’ directorial debut, Monster, is far from a fun cinematic experience, and one actually feels compelled to take a shower after watching it, but it’s a riveting work. Charlize Theron delivers what is arguably the best performance of her career and earned her Academy Award.

Josh & Benny Safdie - Good Time

Cinephiles were thrilled to discover the cinematic heart attack that is Josh and Benny Safdie’s Uncut Gems in 2019, but anyone who watched the brothers’ directorial debut was at the very least mentally prepared for the experience. Starring Robert Pattinson, Good Time is a deeply stressful crime film that comes packed with touches of Of Mice And Men, and it leaves a deep impression on whoever watches it.

Darren Aronofsky – Pi

Darren Aronofsky has a gift for making movies that makes you want to curl up in a ball and cry (see: Requiem For A Dream, Black Swan, mother!), and it’s a mode he hasn’t diverted from since making his feature debut with Pi. It’s a stylistic story of obsession and has one of the most upsetting endings of all time.

John Huston - The Maltese Falcon

There are some films that are held up as the true classics of classic film noir, and right alongside Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Bill Wilder’s Double Indemnity and Carol Reed’s The Third Man is John Huston’s phenomenal The Maltese Falcon. Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade is an icon of detective fiction, and the twists and turns of the mystery feel as fresh today as ever.

Ari Aster - Hereditary

Ari Aster has quickly become one of the most exciting modern filmmakers making original horror, and that’s in part because audiences are still experiencing nightmares from his directorial debut. A look at both generational trauma and grief, Hereditary is a movie so scary that it would make you feel cold if you were in the middle of the desert, and has more than a few images that end up tattooed on the back of your eyelids as you try to go to sleep at night.

Michael Mann - Thief

Nobody makes crime movies like Michael Mann, and it all started with Thief. It’s a thrilling and captivating look at a talented Chicago criminal who is looking for his way into legitimacy and finds himself fighting forces that try and drag him back into his shady business. The movie features one of James Caan’s best performances, and the talented ensemble includes Jim Belishi, Dennis Farina and Willie Nelson.

Francois Truffaut - The 400 Blows

Valued as an important part of cinema history and the French New Wave, Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows is a powerful coming-of-age story starring Jean-Pierre Léaud as Antoine Doinel, a troubled youth who ends up quitting school and turning to thievery, only to be apprehended and thrown in a juvenile detention center. Truffaut is recognized for having created some of the most beautiful films to ever be produced in France, and it all started here.

Jean Luc Goddard - Breathless

Another evocative title that emerged from the French New Wave, Jean Luc Goddard’s Breathless is a visually stunning work of crime and love, with tremendous cinematic innovation, attitude that bleeds off the screen, and an outstanding performance from star Jean-Paul Belmondo in his breakout role.

Barry Jenkins – Medicine For Melancholy

Barry Jenkins first earned widespread acclaim in 2016 for his film Moonlight (which deservingly won Best Picture at the Academy Awards), but not to be slept on is the debut feature he made eight years earlier: Medicine For Melancholy. Starring Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins and set over the course of a single day, it’s a beautiful and emotional romantic drama.

Steven Soderbergh - Sex, Lies, And Videotape

Steven Soderbergh is now recognized as one of the most talented, eclectic filmmakers in cinema, but it all started with Sex, Lies And Videotape – a fascinating romantic drama with brilliant meta levels examining intimacy via camera.

George Miller – Mad Max

Many genre classics have been covered in this list, and now it’s time to dive into one of the greatest action/adventure films of all time. With Mad Max, George Miller takes us to an unnerving not-to-distant future full of violence and chaos, and his unique skills as a filmmaker capturing all that wildness all in camera is what makes this a forever-thrilling experience.

Damien Chazelle – Whiplash

One can read and learn that there is intense competition in performance arts schools, but it’s another thing to live it – and that’s what audiences get to do in Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash. Miles Teller is brilliant as the determined and talented Andrew Neiman, but it’s the Oscar-winning work of J.K. Simmons that makes this outstanding directorial debut exceptional.

Mel Brooks – The Producers

Every legendary cinematic run has to start somewhere, and for Mel Brooks, it was with the brilliance of The Producers. Long before he was shocking with the world with Blazing Saddles and History Of The World Part I, the brilliant comedian unleashed his tale of a Broadway scheme and the insanity of “Springtime For Hitler.”

Jim Abrahams, David Zucker And Jerry Zucker – Airplane!

In the 1980s/1990s, nobody made spoof movies like Jim Abrahams, David Zucker And Jerry Zucker, and they quickly established their special comedic voice with their directorial debut: Airplane! The insane pacing of the jokes and the sheer ridiculousness of everything make this a movie that threatens to choke you with laughter, and there are so, so many quotable lines – many thanks to the deadpan brilliance of Leslie Nielsen.

This list obviously has the potential to grow forever, and it'll be exciting to see who the next big breakout movie directors are. 

Frank Darabont spent the early years of his career as a director preaching to the world that Stephen King is more than just a horror writer. The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile are phenomenal adaptations of works that demonstrate the author’s range, and are among the most beloved films in modern cinema.

For his third King movie, however, Darabont decided to try something different. He wanted to make The Mist as his own first venture into the horror genre – and in doing so he made an unforgettable piece of work that has been shattering audiences since its debut in theaters on November 21, 2007.

According to Scott von Doviak’s Stephen King Films FAQ, Frank Darabont first optioned “The Mist” after making The Shawshank Redemption in the mid-1990s, but his insistence on not changing his proposed ending resulted in studios balking at the project. Darabont made The Green Mile and 2001’s The Majestic while waiting for The Mist’s moment – and it finally came when Bob Weinstein of Dimension Films committed to a $17 million production budget with the filmmaker’s ending intact.

Featuring an ensemble cast filled with Stephen King veteran actors – including Tom Jane, William Sadler, and Jeffrey DeMunn – The Mist is among the most horrifying of horrifying King movies, and an exciting subject for this week’s Adapting Stephen King.

What “The Mist” Is About

As terrific as Stephen King is when it comes to crafting monster-filled, nightmarish scenarios, that’s not what makes him one of the greatest horror writers of all time. What’s special about King is his character work and the way he examines what people do in those monster-filled, nightmarish scenarios. Not only does he ground events in a familiar reality that makes circumstances even more terrifying, but he understands that human nature has the ability to make any horrible circumstance even worse than it already is because of our capacity for fear, panic, and irrationality.

“The Mist” is one of the best Stephen King stories exemplifying this talent… though the author suffered through some bad writer’s block to find it.

King describes the origins of “The Mist” in the “Notes” section of Skeleton Crew, recounting that his agent, Kirby McCauley, served as the project’s starter pistol. In 1976, McCauley was gung-ho on developing a horror anthology hardcover called Dark Forces, and he doggedly pursued King to contribute a piece for the book. The writer appreciated the “gentle diplomacy” that was applied by McCauley – calling it “the hallmark of a really good agent” – but that didn’t help get the creative juices flowing. He faced a creative drought so bad that it made him wonder if his ability to write short stories was permanently broken.

Of all things, it was an errand to the supermarket that finally saw the dam give way. King and his family were living on Long Lake in Bridgton, Maine at the time, and the morning after a storm he took his son, Joe, with him for a trip to the local grocery to pick up some supplies. While roaming the aisles, his muse “suddenly shat on [his] head,” and his imagination conjured the image of a prehistoric bird causing chaos in the store. By the time he reached checkout he was contemplating what would happen if a group of people were trapped together in a market that was surrounded by monsters, and by the end of the following week “The Mist” was a stack of typed pages on his desk – a novella in part inspired by the monster-centric B-movies of the 1950s and 1960s.

Like Stephen King did in real life, David Drayton is a man who takes a trip with his son to the supermarket the morning after a bad storm – but he does so only after noticing a mysterious fog with eerily defined edges rolling over the local lake. This strange cloud spreads everywhere in town by the time the protagonist reaches his destination, and it’s then that he and other denizens discover that it’s not just an odd atmospheric condition. When a beast with vicious tentacles grabs and rips apart a bagboy while he attempts to unblock the vent of the store’s generator, there is a growing understanding that the building is under siege by otherworldly creatures.

But the monsters aren’t exclusively outside. While David, store manager Ollie Weeks, a local woman named Amanda Dumfries, and others try to keep the collective calm and organized, the same cannot be said of Mrs. Carmody – a fear-mongering Christian zealot who begins preaching about the apocalypse and slowly starts to develop a devout following.

How Frank Darabont’s The Mist Differs From Stephen King’s Novella

Few filmmakers have expressed as great an admiration for the works of Stephen King as Frank Darabont, and that’s obviously not just articulated in interviews with the writer/director, but in his work. The Mist is a wholly different kind of movie than both The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, but it’s no less faithful in bringing King’s vision into a new medium.

What’s equally vital, however, is that Darabont’s reverence for the source material doesn’t overwhelm his ability to make important creative decisions while crafting adaptations. He invented the heartwarming reunion at the conclusion of The Shawshank Redemption, axed an entire subplot from The Green Mile, and made some key alterations to The Mist while bringing it to the big screen – making both additions and subtractions.

In terms of the latter, one sequence that Frank Darabont leaves out of his movie is a scene where David Drayon (Tom Jane) and Amanda Dunfrey (Laurie Holden) sleep together in the supermarket. The idea in Stephen King’s story is that the sexual act is a passionless outlet for the extreme emotions experienced by the two characters in the terrifying situation, but it surely was an easy cut for the movie, if not especially because David is supposed to be a happily married man who doesn’t know if his wife, Stephanie (Kelly Collins Lintz) is still alive.

One of the most substantial inventions of the film is the introduction of Private Wayne Jessup (Sam Witwer), who is a local and soldier who has been stationed at the military base in the mountains. On the DVD commentary for The Mist, Frank Darabont notes that he created the character because he didn’t just want the terror of Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) to exist solely in threats. When she convinces her mob to kill Jessup, the danger that she represents no longer exists as just theory, and it raises the stakes for the heroes when she starts talking about sacrificing David’s son, Billy (Nathan Gamble).

There are other minor alterations made in translating the story (like the trip to the pharmacy next door being an attempt to get medicine instead of a trial for potential escape, and the soldier who explodes filled with alien spider babies), but the most infamous difference between the novella and the film is the ending. Truth be told, Stephen King’s version doesn’t have much of a conclusion: it features David, Amanda, Billy, and schoolteacher Irene Reppler (Frances Sternhagen) in a car together driving through the mist and hoping that survival is still possible – hearing the word “Hartford” broadcast on the radio and heading in that direction. David attempts to travel home and discover the fate of his wife, but he can’t access the road due to fallen trees.

In the film, David does make it back home, discovering that Stephanie has been killed… but that’s still arguably the least horrific bit of what transpires in the adaptation. In coming up with a new ending for The Mist, Frank Darabont latched on to a paragraph in the final pages of the story after David puts Amanda’s six-shooter in the car’s glovebox:

Darabont was inspired to depict this worst case scenario. After his car runs out of gas, David uses the remaining bullets in the gun to kill his own son and the other passengers in the car, and he goes out into the mist hoping that he can be murdered quickly by the otherworldly monsters. Instead, a military battalion emerges from the fog, and David realizes that his entire party could have survived had he just held on to hope for a few more minutes.

Is It Worthy Of The King?

Let me start with this: if you haven’t seen the black and white version of The Mist, then you haven’t properly seen the film. Stephen King wrote the novella with a monochromatic vision (he writes this in Skeleton Crew’s “Notes”), and the aesthetic not only serves to give the movie a perfect and genuinely different atmosphere, but it also excuses the CGI creature work in an cool and fascinating way. It’s the definitive way that it should be watched, and Frank Darabont says as much in the cut’s introduction on home video.

The black and white enhances the great 1950s B-movie feel at which the movie aims, and it’s a thrill in that respect – but it’s also impossible not to talk about The Mist without discussing just how ballsy it is in its devastating bleakness. Frank Darabont cut every corner he could in the making of the film so that he could secure promises to execute his vision of the ending, and Constant Readers everywhere can and should be appreciative of his sacrifices because it is brilliant and can never be forgotten by anyone who watches it.

It’s the ending that the novella should have – and Stephen King knows it. In the DVD commentary track for The Mist, Frank Darabont recalls an email he got from the author about the crushing blow that is the film’s final scene:

Of course, not everyone dies in The Mist, as David Drayton survives… but that’s arguably so, so, so much worse.

How To Watch Frank Darabont’s The Mist

Being one of the most popular and much-discussed Stephen King adaptations, The Mist is thankfully a movie that is very accessible in the internet age… provided that you are ok watching the theatrical/color version. The film is now streaming on Netflix for subscribers, and available for purchase and rental on all of the biggest digital platforms, including Amazon Prime, Apple, Google Play, and Vudu. Unfortunately, the director’s cut/ black and white version isn’t as easy to find. It is included on the two-disc collector’s edition Blu-ray and the DVD, but both of those releases are now out of print.

Next week’s Adapting Stephen King will be found in the CinemaBlend TV section, as I’ll be jumping ahead to the year 2009 and taking a close look at Donald P. Borchers’s Children Of The Corn – the remake of the beloved short story that originally aired as a movie on Syfy. Look for the piece on Wednesday, and click through the banners below to discover all of my previous columns.

By late 1995, Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption was considered not just one of the best Stephen King adaptations of all time, but one of the most successful. The film was a flop in theaters, but it became a phenomenon on home video and earned a fast reputation as one of the most beloved movies ever made. Given this context, it’s unsurprising that King at that time found himself eager to work with Darabont again on another project – though the author notably pitched him on an idea he wasn’t sure the filmmaker would be interested in bringing to the big screen.

Having become friends as a result of their collaborations, Stephen King and Frank Darabont had regular phone conversations following the release of The Shawshank Redemption, and it was during one of these chats that King first revealed his plan for The Green Mile – which he was in the stages of planning as a serial novel released in six installments. The author says in his introduction to the published screenplay for the film that Darabont essentially requested first dibs to adapt the story after learning what it would be about, and King was surprised given that it would see him making another movie set in a prison. The writer/director’s response: “Well, you went back, didn’t you?” Hard logic to argue with.

Frank Darabont received a copy of the first Green Mile paperback (titled “The Two Dead Girls”) from Signet Books, and as soon as he did he knew he wanted to bring it to the big screen. He explains on the film’s director’s commentary track that he wanted to tell Stephen King about his intentions as quickly as possible – but King was busy in Estes Park, Colorado filming the miniseries adaptation of The Shining. Not feeling particularly patient, Darabont immediately took a flight to Denver so that he could meet face-to-face with his friend, and not only did he get approval to pursue the adaptation, but he also shaved his beard and put on a period tux to do a quick cameo as a ghost in the on-going production.

The right choices were made by all involved, as The Green Mile is a phenomenal and beautiful cinematic experience, and one that (unlike Shawshank) was recognized for its greatness instantly – earning $286.8 million worldwide at the box office and earning four Academy Award nominations (one of which it definitely should have won – but we'll get to that in a bit). It’s funny, dramatic, dark, light, uplifting, and depressing, and an exciting subject for this week’s Adapting Stephen King.

What The Green Mile Is About

In his introduction to The Green Mile, dated October 27, 1995, Stephen King recounts that his inspiration to write the book, technically speaking, came from a realtor he never met. Said realtor rented a house on Rhode Island to a friend/business associate of King’s, Ralph Vicinanza, and during their sell they remarked that the property looked like something out of a Charles Dickens story. This description stuck in Vicinanza’s mind, and it became a subject of discussion later with his first houseguest, British publisher Malcolm Edwards.

During his stay with Ralph Vicinanza, Edwards brought up the fact that a number of Dickens’ books weren’t sold as a single volume, but instead as installments – and this then led the two men to discuss the possibility of a popular contemporary author attempting something similar. Eventually this conversation faded from Vicinanza’s memory, but he recalled it when he was having a discussion with King in late 1995 about a number of potential opportunities. The author said no to an “interview in the Japanese Playboy" and an “all-expenses-paid tour of the Baltic Republics,” but the serial novel idea intrigued him.

What’s more, Stephen King had a backburner idea that he felt the medium could make work – one structured around a personal fascination he had with death row and the electric chair a.k.a. Old Sparky. He wondered about both the experience of walking to the chair and what it would be like to work as a guard, and after years of pondering he explored his curiosity through The Green Mile: a book about a good universe that is poisoned by the people who live in it.

The book is the story of Paul Edgecombe, and it is set in both the present and the past – specifically the year 1932. In the present, Paul is an old man living at a retirement community, and he spends his days sneaking away from the facility and writing a book about his experiences working as a supervising officer on E Block at Louisiana's Cold Mountain Penitentiary, focusing on his time spent with a living miracle named John Coffey.

Though John has been found guilty of a heinous crime, namely the rape and murder of a pair of nine-year-old twin girls, Paul discovers that there is far more to the gentle giant than his criminal record. While the protagonist regularly encounters some of the worst people humanity has to offer – such as his sociopathic colleague Percy Wetmore and murderous criminals like William “Wild Bill” Wharton – he discovers that the simple, 6’8” muscular Black man caged in one of his cells has a remarkable gift that allows him to heal the sick and the dying.

How Frank Darabont’s The Green Mile Differs From Stephen King’s Novel

Despite the fact that Frank Darabont was directing his first feature film, executives at Castle Rock felt comfortable giving the filmmaker final cut in the making of The Shawshank Redemption. While the end result of this decision was a movie with an expansive 143 minute runtime, its ultimate success led the studio to let Darabont make The Green Mile as he saw fit… hence the adaptation’s 189 minute runtime.

That’s a lot of movie, but it’s appropriate given that it allows it to be marvelously faithful to the source material that inspired it, including just about every plot point and character – albeit with some exception.

The sequences with Paul Edgecombe as an old man (Dabbs Greer) operate as bookends in the film, but it’s a much more substantial part of the narrative in Stephen King’s serial novel. In addition to cutting out the fact that Paul is writing a memoir about his time with John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), the adaptation also doesn’t feature a cat-and-mouse game that the protagonist plays with Brad Dolan, a slimy and dislikable orderly at the retirement facility who specifically reminds the former prison guard of Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchinson).

Because the book writing is taken out, the film substitutes a different avenue into the flashbacks of the past, which is Paul seeing the movie Top Hat on television and feeling compelled to tell his story to fellow resident Elaine Connelly (Eve Brent). Consequently, the scene at the end of The Green Mile when young Paul (Tom Hanks) takes John to watch Top Hat on the big screen is an invention of Frank Darabont’s as well.

The vast majority of the events set in 1932 play out in the film adaptation almost exactly as they do in the book, though there is one missing character, and one missing narrative thread. The character cut out is Arthur Flanders, nicknamed “The President,” who is a prisoner on E Block for a short spell, but is transferred back to general population when his sentence is commuted. Lifting him out has no actual impact on the story, so it’s easy to see why Frank Darabont cut him.

The narrative thread removed involves Paul personally investigating the murder of the Detterick twins – the crime for which John Coffey was found guilty. It’s through this probing he discovers that it was “Wild Bill” Wharton (Sam Rockwell) who committed the atrocity, and that John came upon the girls after they were dead and tried to heal them. 

The film version of The Green Mile circumvents this by having John transfer his knowledge of events to Paul via a psychic touch – which builds on the fact that John learns the truth himself when Wild Bill grabs his arm as he and the guards surreptitiously sneak out to the home of Warden Hal Moores (James Cromwell) and his wife Melinda (Patricia Clarkson).

Is It Worthy Of The King?

There are obviously many parallels to be made between The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile: both are written and directed by Frank Darabont and are based on Stephen King stories that take place primarily inside prison walls and are set in early/mid-20th century. Every time I watch them both, however, I am struck by how they differ as emotional experiences. The 1994 film is a testament to the fortitude of the human spirit and the power of hope, and its fraternal twin is a story that confronts a pervasive darkness in our society that competently works to snuff out promising light.

The world has a habit of crushing the influential figures in our history who have promoted peace and equality – from Martin Luther King Jr., to Medgar Evers, to Mahatma Gandhi – and The Green Mile is a powerful reflection on that horrible truth with a dose of the supernatural. It’s a gut-punch commentary as originally written by Stephen King, and perfectly translated in Frank Darabont’s film.

There’s a strong argument to be made that The Green Mile sports the greatest ensemble that has ever been put together for a Stephen King adaptation, with every actor perfectly encapsulating their respective roles. It’s among the five titles one points to when one wants to illustrate why Tom Hanks is one of the most consummate leading men ever to grace the silver screen, but the reality is that he is also constantly upstaged by the remarkable, scene-stealing supporting cast.

It’s a testament to the effectiveness of Doug Hutchinson’s performance that I want to punch the screen every time Percy appears, and Michael Jeter is spectacular as the mouse-loving Eduard Delacroix (who is at the center of one of the most horrific death scenes in the King canon). But the true awe-inspiring turn is the one from Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey.

Frank Darabont notes on the Green Mile director’s commentary that Duncan was recommended to him by Bruce Willis, who had just worked with the actor on Michael Bay’s Armageddon. His performing experience was limited, but he ended up winning the part of John Coffey after Darabont hooked him up with a coach following his first audition – and what he’s able to do with the role is at times overwhelming. With respect to Michael Caine’s performance in Lasse Hallström’s The Cider House Rules, Duncan should have won the Best Supporting Actor trophy at the 2000 Academy Awards, as his work is staggering and unforgettable.

One last similarity I’ll point out between The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile is that they are perfect adaptations of the respective stories on which they are based, and Hollywood need not try to ever question or second guess that reputation. The situation isn’t quite the same with Frank Darabont’s third King adaptation, 2007’s The Mist, but I’ll save that commentary for my Adapting Stephen King column scheduled for September 7.

How To Watch Frank Darabont’s The Green Mile

If you presently have three hours available in your schedule and want to watch The Green Mile right now, it would take just a few clicks of your mouse/a few taps on your remote. It’s available for free (with ads) on Tubi, though you can also rent or purchase it digitally from all major retailers, including Google, Amazon, and Vudu. If you’re into physical media and are presently trying to build the Ultimate Stephen King collection, however, you should exhibit some patience. While the movie is now available on Blu-ray and DVD, a brand new 4K edition will be hitting store shelves on February 22, and it is now available for pre-order.

Coming up next week, we are moving into the 21st century with a look at another one of the more dramatic-yet-supernatural movies in the canon of Stephen King adaptations: Scott Hicks’ Hearts In Atlantis. Look for the piece on the site here in the CinemaBlend movie section next Wednesday, and for now click through the banners below to discover all of the previous installments of this chronological column.

There are few films in history as cherished as The Shawshank Redemption. It may have been a flop upon its initial release, but it became an instant favorite after hitting the home video market, and is now well regarded as a movie that simply cannot be turned off when it is discovered playing on television. It’s viewed by cinephiles around the world one of most beloved titles in modernity – and what only serves to enhance that love is a reflection on the amazing stories that led to its creation.

To learn about the full history of The Shawshank Redemption, one of the best films of the '90s, I highly recommend checking out the film’s entry in my Adapting Stephen King column, but for your enjoyment below I have assembled a list of 14 behind-the-scenes facts about the movie that will likely only serve to enhance the feelings that you have about the feature. So without further ado, let’s dive into this excellent modern classic.

Frank Darabont Turned Down Millions So That He Could Direct The Shawshank Redemption

Having personally reached out to Stephen King about adapting “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption” and written the script on spec, Frank Darabont had a great deal emotionally invested in the feature project, and his passion to be the director at the helm of the film is beautifully illustrated in his contract negotiations with Castle Rock. When working out a deal with the studio, according to the Los Angeles Times, the filmmaker was offered $2.4 million to step aside and let Rob Reiner make the movie as a follow-up to Stand By Me and Misery, but he opted instead to take a deal that saw him paid $750,000 and a percentage of future profits. That’s a bold move, but obviously one that worked out very much in his favor.

Rob Reiner Had Tom Cruise And Harrison Ford In Mind To Play Andy And Red

Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman deliver such iconic performances in The Shawshank Redemption that it’s terrifically hard to imagine any other two actors playing Andy and Red – but that really makes it all the more interesting to think about the “coulda beens” in the development of the project. Specifically, it’s amazing to recognize that Rob Reiner initially had an idea to cast Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford in the principal roles, according to the film's Blu-ray commentary track. While one can imagine that they would have done tremendous work in the film (they are two of modernity’s elite stars, after all), but it also could have changed the whole profile of the production.

Red’s Mugshot In His File Is A Photo Of Morgan Freeman’s Son

In The Shawshank Redemption, Morgan Freeman’s Ellis "Red" Redding is a man who has spent the vast majority of his adult life as a convict in the titular prison – and that created an interesting issue to solve for the production when it came to the scene early in the movie when the character’s file is shown, including his original mugshot. The crew perhaps could have doctored an image of the actor when he was a teenager, but instead, per the film's director commentary, they went for the next best thing. Alfonso Freeman, the star’s son, was in his mid-30s when production was happening, and a photo of him wearing a chalkboard around his neck was taken to use in the film.

Frank Darabont Experienced Extreme Frustration Filming The Scene Where Brooks Feeds Jake

There is no questioning that the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has an important role to play on film sets, as it should always be a priority for working animals to be treated humanely – but things got a bit extreme behind the scenes of The Shawshank Redemption. For the scene where Brooks feeds a maggot to his baby bird Jake, who is nestled in his pocket, the ASPCA representative refused to let Frank Darabont actually let the animal eat a live waxworm. Instead, the film was only allowed to use a dead worm that had died of natural causes for the scene, which was a procedure that Darabont (per his director’s commentary) had a hard time wrapping his mind around.

Some Shawshank Redemption Scenes Were Seriously Physically Intensive For The Cast

The Shawshank Redemption is not an action film full of sprinting and big stunts, but that doesn’t mean that the work didn’t have a physical toll on the cast – with two standout scenes being of note. For the scene where Red and Andy meet for the first time, Morgan Freeman was basically playing catch for nine hours, which is something that would put a cramp in anybody’s shoulder. Also immensely taxing was the roof tarring sequence, which filmed on a 110 degree summer day, according to Frank Darabont's Blu-ray commentary. The production used real tar, and between takes the black goo would solidify, leaving the actors to try and whip around mops that felt like they weighed 200 pounds.

There’s A Funny Story Behind The Recording Of Morgan Freeman’s Voice Over Lines

There are countless films that feature voice over narration as a crutch, using it as a shortcut to deliver exposition and characters’ emotions, but The Shawshank Redemption is not one of those titles. Morgan Freeman’s voice is one of the most iconic aspects of the film, and it oddly proved to be a difficult detail to capture. Freeman first recorded the lines during production so that the action on set could be synchronized to his voice, and it was not only perfect, but took less than an hour to get done. Unfortunately, that audio was deemed unusable during post-production because there was a tape hiss that the sound team couldn’t get rid of. Freeman, as noted on the Blu-ray special features, had to be brought back in to record the narration… and it took three weeks to get done.

Frank Darabont’s Approach For The Voice Over Was Heavily Influenced By Goodfellas

Explaining why the voice over is so good in The Shawshank Redemption can at least be partially attributed to Frank Darabont taking lessons from the best. Martin Scorsese’ Goodfellas is another title that makes perfect use of narration, and it was a major source of inspiration for Darabont, who says on the movie's commentary that he repeatedly watched the gangster epic during his time making his first feature Stephen King adaptation.

The Ambulance That Takes Bogs Away Was Pushed Past The Camera Because The Engine Died

The Shawshank Redemption, as you can imagine, was not a terrifically high budgeted film, so when a rented ambulance on set broke down, the crew didn’t have the money to just go out and get a new one. This event specifically could have impacted the sequence where Bogs is carted away from Shawshank Prison after receiving a brain-destroying beat down from Captain Hadley, but the filmmakers figured out a fix: because the vehicle couldn’t actually drive past the camera, via the Blu-ray special features, a small group got behind it and pushed it – which is imperceptible in the final cut.

Brooks’ Halfway House Is Actually In The Prison

There sequence where Brooks is released from Shawshank Prison on parole provides some of the very few scenes in the movie that are set outside the walls of the titular penitentiary… but what makes that fact particularly funny is that it in reality it’s not really the truth. The room in the halfway house where Brooks eventually commits suicide isn’t actually a separate location, but was instead just an office in the Ohio State Reformatory where most of the rest of the film was shot. It’s definitely ironic when you consider the whole point of the scene is meant to drive home the character’s institutionalization: on a weird level, Brooks never left Shawshank.

Stephen King Poked Fun At Frank Darabont About One Particular Detail

Stephen King has frequently touted The Shawshank Redemption as one of the best adaptations of any of his works, but he does have a couple issues with it. In his essay in Stephen King Goes To The Movies, the author notes that he isn’t a big fan of the “Marriage of Figaro” sequence – where Andy locks himself in the Warden’s office to play Mozart on the loudspeaker – but Frank Darabont’s Blu-ray commentary reveals another nitpick that King has. Evidently, the horror icon gets a bit hung up on the fact that the tunnel that Andy digs through the wall in his cell is practically a perfect circle – which, when you think about it, is a bit silly.

One Scene In The Shawshank Redemption Was Changed Post-Release

After flopping during its theatrical release, The Shawshank Redemption became a phenomenon when it hit the home video market – but what’s funny about that circumstance is that it probably means very few recognize an interesting change Frank Darabont made to the movie post-release. According to the filmmaker, the shot of Warden Norton’s dead body had to be changed because the entry wound from the self-inflicted gunshot was originally in the wrong place. Thanks to the magic of VFX, the writer/director was able to move it below the character’s chin where it belongs when the movie was first released on DVD.

Frank Darabont Included A Dark Tower Easter Egg In The Shawshank Redemption When He Couldn’t Get Clearance For A Particular Name

There are very few ways in which The Shawshank Redemption deviates from Stephen King’s “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption,” but one of the small instances is the identity that Andy Dufresne assumes after escaping prison. In the novella the name is “Peter Stevens,” but the production opted to change it out of fear of being sued by a real person with that name. Frank Darabont kept the Stevens part, but he changed the first name to Randall as a reference to Randall Flagg: the villain in King’ The Stand and the epic Dark Tower series (among other books).

Red And Andy’s Reunion Wasn’t Originally Going To Be In The Film

Another key way in which the movie differs from the source material is the ending, as the original story doesn’t include the beat where Red and Andy are reunited in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Frank Darabont’s initial instinct was to maintain this open-ended conclusion in the adaptation, but individuals as Castle Rock, as noted in the Blu-ray featurettes, requested that he at the very least shoot a reunion scene – at the same time leaving it up to the director as to whether or not it would actually be included. Darabont agreed to film the sequence, and then obviously decided that it legitimately was the proper ending.

The Shawshank Redemption Is Dedicated To Allen Greene, Who Was Frank Darabont’s First Agent

The first text that appears on screen in the end credits of The Shawshank Redemption is a dedication to a man named Allen Greene – though most audiences probably aren’t familiar with who that is. Frank Darabont explains it in the movie’s commentary track, identifying Greene as his first agent in the film industry, and who died prior to the completion of the film.

Do you now find yourself with an overwhelming urge to watch The Shawshank Redemption? In addition to being available to stream on HBO Max, you can rent or purchase it digitally via Amazon, Vudu, Google, or Apple, or get it in extreme high definition by picking up a copy of the recently released 4K Blu-ray

The collected works of author Stephen King sprawl across a shared universe so huge, you could easily hit a reference to other books by throwing a random rock. Funny enough, there’s plenty of rocks in what is one of the best King film adaptations to date, The Shawshank Redemption; and director Frank Darabont threw a particular stone into the air for die hard fans to discover in that 1994 classic. The cool Stephen King easter egg that was worked into the film connects to a very familiar figure in the King canon, and we might not look at Tim Robbins’ Andy Dufrense the same way again after learning about it. 

The Dark Tower Easter Egg Hidden In The Shawshank Redemption

This trivia gem comes from Frank Darabont’s director’s commentary for the film, and it's been making the rounds for some time. We covered this previously in our Adapting Stephen King  series, but it's come up again through the powers of internet discussion, and now felt like a good time to discuss it. With Andy’s scheme to wash the dirty money going in and out of Shawshank Prison requiring a fake person to keep all involved safe and sound, the phantom identity needed a name and a paper trail, as it were. It’s there where Darabont introduced a pretty huge King-verse reference with a slight change from the novella source material, as he explained with the following: 

Just as all things serve The Beam, this inside baseball reference for Stephen King lovers feels like a sneaky little way to connect one of the author’s most grounded stories to the sprawling multiverse that The Dark Tower has always been at the center of. Randall Flagg’s numerous forms and aliases have permeated the world of King’s writings for some time now, in stories both epic and minimal. Screen adaptations are no stranger to this character, either, with the most recent one being Alexander Skarsgård’s portrayal in Paramount+'s event series remake of The Stand. Though Frank Darabont says he made this name change merely as a tip of the hat to this infamous character's creator, there’s another thought-provoking way to look at this decision.

Why This Shawshank Redemption Easter Egg Is So Interesting

There’s a line in The Shawshank Redemption where Andy Dufrense admits that in order to become a crook, he had to go to prison. He uses this sentiment as a comment on his assistance in the dirty banking that Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton) engages in at the infamous prison. While Andy is still very much a person we can root for, there’s something interesting in the glee he exhibits when laying down his story. Watch this scene where Andy explains the scheme to his pal Red (Morgan Freeman):

Again, by time The Shawshank Redemption sees Andy Dufrense escape through a river of shit, washing himself in the rains of freedom, we’re with him all the way, morally and emotionally. We know he’s an innocent man by and large, and that hasn’t changed because of his financial misdeeds. However, no matter how great this outward corruption is, Andy has been corrupted inwardly ever so slightly. That’s the sort of thing Randall Flagg would delight in, as making a just and honest man resort to shady acts for survival is his bag in every dimension of existence. Plus, he gets the added pleasure of not only seeing sadistic prison guard Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) being arrested, but ruining a man of God in the process.

The cherry on top of all of this has to be that Warden Norton, pious as he may have been, commits some pretty big sins throughout the events of The Shawshank Redemption. Stealing money from a government institution, allowing horrible mistreatment to take place under his wing, and eventually committing the ultimate sin of taking his own life, sheerly to avoid judgement? That’s a Deadly Sin hat trick, and it’s the sort of thing Flagg has been known to influence and engage in from time to time. It only gets sweeter when you realize that he may have used innocent Andy Dufresne as his weapon of vengeance, corrupting him in the process as well. 

Of course, this is supposedly just a fun nod that Frank Darabont threw into The Shawshank Redemption, as a fan of Stephen King’s work. The theory we’ve laid out is a fun flight of fancy that came from picking up on this reference, and isn't (knowingly) built into the finished product. Having said that, it’s hard not to think a little deeper about the possibilities, as The Walking Dude has the power to show up wherever we least expect him; and there’s always a sweet deal to be made...if the price is right.

The Shawshank Redemption, one of the best '90s movies, is available for streaming on HBO Max at the time of this writing, which means you can feel free to watch this absolute classic yet again. Maybe there’s more evidence that proves or debunks this Randall Flagg theory scattered throughout the film? Or, you could just watch the warm blanket fairy tale that is Stephen King’s prison drama masterpiece for what it is, and enjoy.

When any individual finds success, it’s always wonderful to see them turn around and work to try and help others in their field, and while Stephen King has made all kinds of support and outreach efforts to other creatives over the course of his career, one of the earliest moves he made in that regard was establishing what is referred to as the Dollar Baby Program. In the late 1970s, he was regularly getting requests from student filmmakers hoping to get permission to adapt his short stories, and while his lawyers saw it as a potential legal quagmire, the author created a policy that would allow select works be available for the price of $1 under three conditions: 1) King would retain all rights to the original story; 2) the resulting movie wouldn’t be exhibited commercially without permission; and 3) a copy of the finished work would be sent to him to watch.

In the last four decades, many young writer/directors have taken advantage of this program, but there is no question whatsoever that the standout work among all those completed is an adaptation of “The Woman In The Room” that was made in 1983. Featured in the collection Night Shift, the short story is an emotional and melancholy piece about terminal illness and euthanasia, and the 30-minute movie is a haunting and powerful incarnation. Stephen King was impressed and shocked by the quality, and made a point of remembering the name of the young filmmaker responsible for making it: Frank Darabont.

Around 1987, Darabont reached out to King again, but this time not about a Dollar Baby short; he wanted permission to take a crack at adapting “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption,” a prison-set novella from 1982’s Different Seasons. The author didn’t quite see the cinematic potential in the story, but he trusted the material in the hands of the man who made The Woman In The Room and granted the filmmaker the option. After years of procrastination, Darabont wrote the script on spec in the span of eight weeks, and when shopping it around to studios, he only ended up having to go to Castle Rock Entertainment – the production company behind Stand By Me, Misery, and Needful Things – to get a “yes.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, Frank Darabont was offered $2.4 million to sell the script to Castle Rock so that Rob Reiner could direct, but Darabont refused, wanting to direct the movie himself, and he instead took an offer for $750,000 plus a percentage of future profits. Thus began the journey making 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption – a film that is now regarded as one of the best movies of the '90s, most beloved of all time, and is the subject of this week’s Adapting Stephen King.

What “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption” Is About

The novella has never precisely been the most desired medium in the business side of the literary industry, but they have been a staple of the Stephen King canon nearly from the beginning. Being the exceptionally dedicated and prolific writer that he is, King fell into a pattern in the early years of his career that saw him complete a novel and then follow it up with a shorter work that was too long to be classified a short story. The first four in this pattern were ultimately collected in the aforementioned Different Seasons. Per Douglas Winter’s Stephen King: The Art Of Darkness, he wrote “The Body” after completing work on Salem’s Lot; “Apt Pupil” was penned after The Shining; “The Breathing Method” was imagined in the wake of Cujo; and “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption” poured from his exhausted mind after finishing the marathon that was The Stand.

According to Stephen King’s essay “Rita Hayworth And The Darabont Redemption” (included as an introduction in The Shawshank Redemption’s published screenplay), original inspiration for the story came out of a desire to echo the style of author Max Brand, a.k.a. Frederick Schiller Faust. Brand’s books would often feature a “plain-spun narrator” telling stories about their amazing friend – but at the same time be telling a story about themselves. Writes King,

As “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption” began to flow out of his mind and out through his fingertips, the narrator in question became Red, a veteran prisoner in a Maine penitentiary named Shawshank Prison, and his heroic secondary character was revealed as unassuming, determined banker Andy Dufresne. With those two spectacular protagonists, King weaved a remarkable journey about indelible friendship, the secret strength embedded in hope, and the powerful optimism understanding that “no good thing ever dies.”

Beginning in 1948 and spanning nearly 30 years, “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption” chronicles Andy Dufresne’s time as a convicted innocent man learning how to survive all the horrors that transpire inside prison walls. Written as a memoir from Red’s perspective, who during his time on the inside is known as a man who knows how to get things, the story goes from seeing Andy as an introverted loner, to impressive hero, to mythic figure.

How Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption Differs From “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption”

On the page, “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption” doesn’t come off the page as being particularly cinematic (as recognized by the author himself in the quote above), but when Frank Darabont read it, he saw something that even Stephen King didn’t recognize. The purest proof of this is that there is very little about the material that is changed in the journey across mediums – and the stuff that is altered is perfectly sensible.

The most sensible change made between the novella and The Shawshank Redemption is in the realm of character amalgamation. In the text, Shawshank Prison is overseen by multiple wardens during the tenure of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), but the movie simplifies things by just having Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton) be the one in charge for the entire duration. Similarly, the role of Brooks (James Whitmore) has story bits that come from multiple sources in Stephen King’s novella, but he is constructed in the film to be the perfect personification of institutionalization.

Another significant modification involving the warden involves the fate of Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows), the young prisoner whom Andy helps get an education and could hold the key to his freedom. In a surprise twist, the film version is actually much darker than what Stephen King originally wrote, which simply sees Tommy transferred out of Shawshank to a minimum security prison. With this change, it was Frank Darabont’s intention to really drive home the extreme villainy of Warden Norton, and in that mission he is certainly successful.

One of the very few straight-up additions made by Frank Darabont to the story is the sequence where Andy locks himself in the warden’s office and plays Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” over the PA system. The filmmaker was inspired to include the moment because he was listening to the music as he was writing the screenplay, though it’s a scene that Stephen King isn’t particularly enamored with, as he writes that he “never liked” it in his essay about the film in Stephen King Goes To The Movies.

Perhaps the most famous difference between the Stephen King story and The Shawshank Redemption is the ending. Red (Morgan Freeman) – who, it should be noted, is a white guy with red hair in the source material – never actually reunites with Andy in Zihuatanejo, Mexico; he simply rides the bus to El Paso, Texas with hope in his heart that he will see his friend again. Frank Darabont originally planned to have that be the ending of the film as well, but Castle Rock insisted that he at the very least shoot a scene with the characters reuniting. It was left to be the writer/director’s choice whether or not to keep or cut the moment on the beach, and he chose the former.

The last change I’ll note is the secretly established identity that Andy takes on following his prison escape. In the novella, Andy winds up going by “Peter Stevens,” but that was nixed by the production due to concerns of possibility of being sued by an actual person with that name. Frank Darabont fixed it to be “Randall Stevens” instead, with “Randall” being a direct reference to the villainous Randall Flagg from The Stand, Eyes Of The Dragon, and the Dark Tower novels.

Is It Worthy Of The King?

That header, a repeated feature of this column, seems silly in light of the reputation that Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption has earned in the 27 years since its original release, so I’ll be brief in directly addressing it: unquestionably. As a Stephen King adaptation, it is a film that uncovers and exposes the gorgeous and precious soul of the novella that inspired it, and every choice made in bringing it to life – casting, direction, cinematography, editing, and so on – is remarkable.

Its great power is in its earnestness. Hollywood has spent so many decades overloading us with schmaltz that our cynicism drives go into overload when faced with attempts at pure optimism, and more often than not the wholly appropriate reaction is a hefty and obvious eye roll. The Shawshank Redemption defies that instinct. The love that it has for its characters seeps out of the screen and infects the audience, creating a deep appreciation of their humanity and making it a pressing need to see them free. Its themes about institutionalization and, yes, redemption, are spectacularly complicated to convey, particularly when you’re talking about an ensemble of protagonists who have all been convicted of violent offenses, but it’s magical in its translation of perspective and in its stimulus of empathy.

Both Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins deliver performances that they’ll be forever remembered for – which is an opinion meant to both express the extraordinary quality of their work in the movie, and also the wide-spread love that it has earned since it was declared a flop during its theatrical run. Stephen King touches on the phenomenon of ubiquitous appreciation in Stephen King Goes To The Movies, and credits a great deal of it to the man who originally inspired its creation:

The Shawshank Redemption may be less than 30 years old, but it’s not a controversial statement to say that it has already earned the status of timeless classic, and it will forever be recognized as a special title in the Hollywood legacy of Stephen King.

How To Watch Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption

It should be surprising to literally nobody that it is spectacularly easy in the internet age to watch Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption. It is currently streaming on HBO Max, but even if you don’t have a subscription you can rent or purchase it digitally via Amazon, Vudu, Google, or Apple. If you’re looking for the most pristine version available and/or you collect physical media, a 4K Blu-ray was just released a couple months ago.

Next week will be a very different edition of Adapting Stephen King, as we’ll be going from the Oscar-nominated prestige of The Shawshank Redemption to the grim/silly horror of Tobe Hooper’s The Mangler. Look for it here on CinemaBlend next Wednesday, and to explore all of the previous installments of this column, click through the banners below!

The Walking Dead has been a huge moneymaker for AMC over the years since it premiered in 2010, but the network is now poised to pay a hefty amount in a settlement with original series co-creator Frank Darabont, who was fired from The Walking Dead in 2011 after a brief stint as showrunner. The lawsuit over profit participation had been unfolding for the better part of a decade, and the settlement is a pretty big deal for both Darabont and AMC, although for different reasons.

Under the terms of the settlement deal, which was disclosed recently in an SEC filing (via Variety), AMC Networks will pay Frank Darabont and talent agency CAA a grand total of $200 million, and they will continue receiving a portion of future profits from streaming deals for both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. The initial lawsuit was filed back in 2013, so this settlement has been a very long time coming.

Notably, the settlement does not account for other Walking Dead-related content, such as the existing World Beyond spinoff and future spinoffs once the original series wraps in 2022, and it buys out Frank Darabont and CAA's rights for additional Walking Dead content.

Although the $200 million settlement is a major payday, it's actually less than a figure that Frank Darabont previously named in damages. In a case development back in 2016, Darabont and CAA were seeking a whopping $280 million, with the figure calculated from Darabont's original contract for as much as 10% of The Walking Dead profits after production costs had been deducted. The $200 million includes $57 million of profit participation that AMC had previously intended to pay for the contracts.

As for AMC, the $200 million settlement was disclosed because it will impact the network's free cash flow for all of 2021. While that is a big chunk of change lost for the network, AMC will have a more straightforward way to proceed with future Walking Dead projects thanks to the settlement, and the Walking Dead universe definitely isn't going concluding just because the end is coming for the series that started it all.

The settlement also takes care of both the original 2013 lawsuit and the additional lawsuit filed by Frank Darabont in 2018 to allege additional fiduciary abuses. The cases were combined by a judge into the one settlement. AMC is still facing a similar lawsuit filed by creator Robert Kirkman, former showrunner Glen Mazzara, and executive producers Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert, and Charles Eglee filed in 2017, and is pending in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Still, the settlement closes the book on a lawsuit that got pretty ugly at times, with a hell of a payday for Frank Darabont and more opportunities (albeit with $200 million less) for AMC when it comes to The Walking Dead as a franchise. And the future looks bright for The Walking Dead universe continuing beyond the eleventh and final season of the mothership show.

Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride, who are the last remaining cast members who appeared in Season 1, are slated to reprise their iconic roles as Daryl and Carol for a live-action spinoff. An episodic anthology series entered development as well. The zombie apocalypse isn't going anywhere from AMC.

In fact, it will soon return to AMC, as Season 11 premieres on Sunday, August 22 at 9 p.m. ET. That said, AMC+ subscribers will be able to catch the premiere a few days early, on August 19.

There are popular TV shows, and then there's AMC's The Walking Dead. The apocalyptic drama has maintained a very strong following into its current eighth season, while struggling a bit to finds its rhythm in the first few. There are currently only three characters left from the show's original Atlanta group, so we've seen plenty of character deaths over the years. One of the earliest shockers was the brutal killing of Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) in Season 2, far before the character died in the comics. Now DeMunn has shed light on the situation, and revealed he actually asked to be killed off back in the show's sophomore season. He said,

Mind blown. While hardcore Walking Dead fans were shocked when Dale was suddenly disemboweled midway through Season 2, it turns out it was actually a personal decision made by the actor himself. Considering the chaos that was occurring onset, it certainly makes sense.

During The Walking Dead's second season on AMC, original showrunner Frank Darabont was fired from the series he developed for the small screen. It's a scandal that has never really faded into the background of pop culture, as Darabont brought TWD to life and assembled the cast. Darabont has sued for financial restitution, considering how much money The Walking Dead has ended up making over the course of its tenure on the air.

The ending of The Walking Dead's second season marked a change for the apocalyptic drama, as the stakes began to really escalate. Rather than sitting around on a farm, villains were introduced and bloody conflicts helped put the show at the top of the ratings. Frank Darabont's departure may have been what was best for The Walking Dead, but it caused plenty of turmoil for those involved in the show.

Jeffrey DeMunn's sense of loyalty toward Frank Darabont makes sense, given their history before The Walking Dead. DeMunn was one of a handful of actors that Darabont brought over from his work on the Stephen King adaptation The Mist. He, Laurie Holden (Andrea), and Melissa McBride (Carol) each had roles in that project, which got them cast in The Walking Dead. Since DeMunn was really only there because of Frank Darabont, it stands to reason that he'd depart after his collaborator was fired.

While Dale's comic death was eventually given to to Bob, his presence was surely missed in the seasons following Jeffrey DeMunn's departure. Still, you have to respect the actor for sticking to his principles.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays on AMC. In the meantime, check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch. Also our Amazon list and superhero list to ensure you don't miss a single episode.

To casual viewers, the biggest battle involving The Walking Dead might be Rick and Negan's All Out War, or humanity vs. the walkers. But others might be aware of the ongoing legal conflict between the TV series developer Frank Darabont and AMC, which stems from the filmmaker's sudden exit back in Season 2. Now, Darabont and talent agency CAA are doubling down with a second (and concurrent) lawsuit against the network, allegedly fueled by recently discovered financial information that could lead to many millions of dollars changing hands.

Unless a judge immediately throws this case out, however, it will likely take several years to get to the point when actual money and actual hands are required. No one should count on anything getting thrown out, though, since a lot of data here would be damaging if legitimate. Frank Darabont and CAA recently completed an audit of AMC's financial records, and according to THR, it was allegedly discovered that AMC was misreporting even more revenue numbers than previously thought, and is/was also failing to include various licensing fees that Darabont and others should probably have been privy to. The original 2013 lawsuit, also tied to lost profits, is currently awaiting a decision on whether it will go to trial or not, and that lawsuit can't be adjusted to include what allegedly came out of the audit. Thus, the second lawsuit.

To go a bit deeper into the claims being brought against AMC, the plaintiffs are saying that tens of millions of dollars were diverted from AMC's record-keeping, claiming the network is only reporting 20% of the money earned from The Walking Dead's iTunes sales. As well, some product integration fees reportedly weren't being reported at all, specifically from Hyundai and Gerber, and the lawsuit also says that Sundance International Channel, which falls under the AMC Networks umbrella, is paying a lower than average licensing fee, and that various expenses reported highly inflated the actual costs.

Interestingly, Frank Darabont's latest lawsuit directly ties into the complaint filed by Walking Dead comic creator Robert Kirkman, who also hit AMC up for lost profits along with current and former executive producers Gale Anne Hurd, Dave Alpert and Glen Mazzara. Kirkman & Co.'s suit made public the deal he signed with AMC when the TV show first got sold, which revealed Kirkman's contract featured a different provision from what Darabont had, and it allegedly went unreported during Darabont's earlier court proceedings. If legit, that could mean AMC was in breach of contract with Darabont, who is also seeking judgment to be declared entitled to receive the same kind of licensing fee as Kirkman.

Needless to say, this isn't the kind of open and shut courtroom ordeal that can be explained away on a single TV episode of Law & Order: Hilltop Colony. It's been four years since Frank Darabont first brought legal action against AMC, and we're still waiting to see if a trial will go down, so Team Family will probably be completely different by the time this lawsuit gains traction. Of course, The Walking Dead has proven time and again that anything can happen, so maybe everything will soon be settled fairly and gracefully. But if you read those explosive emails that predated Darabont's firing, you know that outcome is the long shot.

Until then, don't forget The Walking Dead returns for the back half of Season 8 on Sunday, February 25, at 9:00 p.m. ET. And bookmark our midseason premiere schedule to see when all the other horror dramas and courtroom procedurals will be popping up in primetime.

Warning: spoilers for The Mist are in play. If you haven't experienced the terror for yourself, bookmark this piece and come back.

With all of this talk about Stephen King movies in 2017, there's one movie that's been a recurring thought in our minds as of late: Frank Darabont's 2007 adaptation of The Mist. Blame it on how it's been the year for Stephen King adaptations or the fact that the Spike TV adaptation was cancelled. Hell, seeing Thomas Jane in this weekend's 1922 kind of drove the point home, as he's once again proven he's one of those actors that just gets King's work.

Most importantly, it's Halloween, and that's the time of year to indulge in what truly scares you. And if being stuck in a grocery store with an angry mob led by a religious zealot inside isn't something to be afraid of, having massive and unfriendly creatures waiting on the outside certainly is. Though the thing that scares us the most about The Mist is its ending, an occurrence so shocking that it's still one of the most harsh finales we've ever seen. It's an ending we need to discuss, and that's exactly what we're about to do. Prepare yourselves, as we're about to go back into The Mist.

How The Movie Ends

After spending almost the whole movie cooped up in the supermarket, hiding from the creatures that make their home in The Mist, Thomas Jane's David Drayton leaves the safety of the building with a select group of people, in order to drive into the mist. The surviving party members find themselves stranded on the road, as the car they took runs out of gas mid-journey. Faced with the choice of either being ended by the monsters or by their own devices, the group allows David to shoot them all as an act of mercy. This includes David's young son, who's only eight years old at the time.

Unfortunately for David, there were five people and four bullets, leaving himself unable to finish his task by killing himself. So he walks outside, egging on fate to engage in what we've come to know is the standard operating procedure of The Mist: the prospect of a horrific monster eating him. Only, that doesn't happen. Apparently, the Army base that started this mess got the situation under control, and David sees this all too clearly when soldiers start to clean up the area around him. But the real kicker is when he sees truckloads of survivors from the supermarket they had fled, including a woman who previously wandered into the mist, played by The Walking Dead's Melissa McBride.

With his wife dead, and having just mercy killed everyone in his party including his young son, David realizes that if they'd stayed put just stopped for a single moment and thought things through, everyone would have been ok. He screams in pure madness, and the film ends. You can watch these last few moments for yourself, in the clip below.

That's not the end of the madness though, as if the movie's David knew the ending of the original Mist novella, he'd have gone even crazier.

How The Book Ended

The novella The Mist ends pretty similar to the movie, with a daring escape being made by David, his son, and two others. What follows is a longer driving sequence that hits upon the heavily implied death of David's wife, and sees the crew making their way to a Howard Johnson's hotel near the state border. As he finishes writing the pages explaining the entirety of The Mist, he sets up the ending with the following caveat:

Rather than definitively ending, The Mist's literary form leaves its conclusion ambiguous, with the prospect of salvation being found in Hartford, Connecticut - based on David's apparently hearing that town's name in a brief radio transmission. He mulls over the thought that they can only make it so far on the amount of gas they have, even has a prospect to refuel the car. In the end, he kisses his son good night, and whispers "Hartford" and "Hope" to him.

So while The Mist has a bleak, unforgiving, and finite conclusion in Frank Darabont's adaptation, the novella has a more open ended conclusion that gives hope to David Drayton, his son, and the two women that followed them into the wild. Right about now, you're probably thinking to yourself, "why the hell did they change the ending?" Well, we've got some ideas on that, and they're supported by the King of horror himself.

Why They Changed It

There was one big force behind changing the ending to The Mist for the theatrical adaptation, and it was Frank Darabont himself. When talking about the new conclusion in an interview, Stephen King explained how this came to be.

When making The Mist in an era that saw the worldwide public dealing with the brutal realities of ongoing war and terrorism, it kind of made sense to beef up the ending into something that embraced a darker sense of realism. It would only be a year or so until The Dark Knight got in on the action, but Darabont and King saw the opportunity for a definitive and memorable ending, and took it.

Reading Stephen King's remarks on the ending, there's one key thing you have to keep in mind: the original story was written in 1980, which not only makes it one of King's earliest works, but also happens to be in the same year that Stanley Kubrick's The Shining made its way into theaters. Considering how much Stephen King hated the way The Shining was adapted, he's always had a bit of an anti-Hollywood bent on his mind, and who could blame him? It only makes sense that he would trust Frank Darabont, the man who made The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile into the successful adaptations they were. But the fact that this ending allowed King to get one up on Hollywood convention feels like it was the icing on his cake. Something he's never been shy of expressing since day one.

What King Thought Of The Ending

Needless to say, Stephen King is one of the biggest fans of the ending to The Mist's film adaptation, and that's not information that's new. While the previous quote about his approval of the ending came as early as a couple months ago, King was still cheerleading for the film's nihilist conclusion when the film was first released into the world. He'd said as much in an interview with USA Today around the time of the film's release, stating that:

He only further poured the affection on Frank Darabont's thrilling end to David Drayton's adventures, as he doubled down in a press conference for The Mist's release and said this:

It's hard not to see Stephen King's glee for the fact that The Mist was not only going to bum out a bunch of new fans that had never experienced the material before, but also that loyal fans who read the book were about to be in for a bit of a shock themselves. After all, the man loves a good shock and/or scare at the expense of his audience, so why wouldn't he enjoy it if it fits into the parameters of the story that came before it? But is it truly the better ending?

Which Ending Was Better?

For hardcore Stephen King fans, picking a favorite ending to The Mist must is like Sophie's choice. But, taking both into consideration for their individual merits, there's some good points to be made. The ending to The Mist in novella form speaks to the dogged determination of our species. It's a hopeful ending that says we can make it, if only we push ourselves far enough, with enough smart thought behind our decisions. It's an inconclusive ending, but it allows for hope to flourish with the right thinking.

The ending to Frank Darabont's The Mist though is a dark, gut-punch of an ending, that shows a man on the wrong side of fate, with one less bullet than he needed. It is a bleak ending that does not rely on fate or indecision to lead the audience towards their own preferences, and it forces you to see its definitive conclusion in all of its dark glory, letting you decide to either accept or reject it on those standards alone.

In all honestly, I favor that second ending, purely because it feels more like the Stephen King I've come to know in a more modern context. Also, it's an ending so audacious in what it does, that you kind of have to respect it. But most importantly, it's an ending that brought The Mist into the modern age without having to change all that much about the story to begin with. The possibility for soul crushing defeat was always there in the world of David Drayton and his compatriots. All Frank Darabont did was give the story the push it needed, ultimately sealing everyone's fates.

This poll is no longer available.

While the world of entertainment has never been lacking by way of creative controversies and disputes, the ugliest situations don't often get publicized as widely as the events surrounding the firing of The Walking Dead TV developer Frank Darabont, which has remained headline news thanks to a lawsuit between the filmmaker and AMC. Most recently, Darabont's vicious and expletive-laden emails to the Walking Dead's crew members were unveiled, with notable TV director Gwyneth Horder-Payton specifically targeted with insulting fury. Horder-Payton somewhat surprisingly responded to the situation this week, saying this:

Clearly, Gwyneth Horder-Payton could have stayed mum on the issue and no one would have expected anything otherwise, but it's commendable that she was able to address Frank Darabont's extreme emails, and without ever hitting a tone that came across as defensive or confrontational. I mean, I seriously doubt anyone is eager to rail on Darabont in a public setting, considering how litigious things already are. (Not to mention any innate worries concerning being publicly raked over the coals again.)

Rather than sharing her reactionary thoughts in a more intimate conversation, Gwyneth Horder-Payton talked things out in front of a large crowd during the TCA summer press event, specifically for a panel made up of FX directors. (She's helmed eps for Justified, Sons of Anarchy, Feud, American Horror Story and more.) And while not exactly a groundbreaking response, there's some wisdom in there that younger TV directors and more could learn from, particularly in letting one's work speak for itself in the face of criticisms both high and low, and without letting one's central vision get distracted by outside noise.

Of course, we can't easily tell just how strained things were on the set of The Walking Dead during its first season, although it's hard to believe Frank Darabont would have been so hardcore in his emails without having that angst bleed into his day-to-day behavior. When he called out Gwyneth Horder-Payton in an email to AMC exec Denise Huth -- in reference to either the director's work on Episode 3, "Tell It To the Frogs" or the Season 2 premiere "What Lies Ahead" -- Darabont called her footage "fundamentally fucked," and compared her mind-state to that of The Majestic actor Allen Garfield, whose work was allegedly affected by a stroke that no one was aware he'd suffered.

As such, it would have been quite reasonable for Horder-Payton to stack up some soapboxes and take Darabont to town over his insulting words. But she got through that "extreme" experience relatively unscathed and has gone on to deliver some of the best work in her career in the years after. Here's to more of that in the future.

While we're definitely not going to see Frank Darabont returning to The Walking Dead universe outside of the courtroom, the AMC hit will return to audiences for Season 8 on Sunday, October 22, at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see everything else hitting the small screen in the near future, head to our summer premiere schedule and our fall TV schedule.

The Walking Dead has been a huge hit for AMC, to the point that the zombie apocalypse series is pretty much responsible for keeping the network competitive on the small screen. Unfortunately for original showrunner and show developer Frank Darabont, he hasn't reaped any of the financial benefits from the show's success. He filed a lawsuit against AMC that has been very public and very ugly, and now the suit has revealed just how much Darabont thinks he's owed for his work on The Walking Dead. The filmmaker and his agents are seeking $280 million in damages.

No, that's not a typo. Frank Darabont and the CAA agency are seeking $280 million from AMC for allegedly failing to pay him his due contingent profits. The original suit back in 2013 filed for "unspecified money damages" based on the accusation that AMC's decision late in the game to produce The Walking Dead itself, rather than giving production rights to another company, meant that AMC could circumvent paying individuals who were involved in the profit participation program.

The profit participation program was designed to calculate payment after production costs were factored in. THR reports Darabont contends that AMC's decision to produce The Walking Dead enabled it to license the series to its cable affiliate for an insufficient fee. For its part, AMC contends that the license fee had been negotiated ahead of time.

The whopping $280 million is calculated from the fact that Frank Darabont had originally been contracted for as much as 10% of Walking Dead profits after production costs had been deducted. $280 million as 10% indicates that Darabont and Co. believe that the show has made billions of dollars to date.

Another sticky wicket between Frank Darabont and AMC concerns the circumstances of Darabont's dismissal from The Walking Dead. He held the reins of the series for all of Season 1 and the first half of Season 2, and Darabont reports that he worked on all thirteen second season episodes in some capacity or other. AMC evidently disputes that claim and asserts that Darabont did not work full-time on the series in Season 2 and therefore was/is not entitled to the agreed-upon profit share for an entire season.

There have been conflicting accounts of why exactly Frank Darabont was fired from The Walking Dead during Season 2. According to a deposition from Darabont, AMC accused him of not meeting with directors as required of him. Budget issues, such as on reported instance where AMC demanded more from the show for smaller budgets, also came between them. Darabont also gained support from Glen Mazzara, who took over showrunning duties after his departure. Mazzara stated that Darabont was booted from The Walking Dead because of a personal rift between Darabont and Robert Kirkman, as well as Darabont and AMC.

We'll have to wait and see if a judge allows the case to move on to the trial stage. If so, we should find out whether or not Frank Darabont can make the case that he's owed $280 million for his treatment by AMC. The trial won't happen until at least 2018, so it could be a long time before we find out what happens next. At least we'll have more of The Walking Dead in the near future. Season 7 will premiere on Sunday, October 23 at 9 p.m. ET.

Masterpieces are seldom appreciated properly in their time. It's only in hindsight that we realize that we ever had something special on our hands. Believe it or not, that's exactly what happened with Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption when it hit theaters in 1994. Despite the movie's legacy, it didn't earn much at the box office, and Darabont seems to think that has to do with the film's very premise. He explained:

During a recent conversation with Yahoo Movies, Frank Darabont opened up regarding the lackluster financial performance of The Shawshank Redemption, and gave his opinion regarding the film's lack of box office power. Although many people have historically blamed the film's title for not generating much enthusiasm among members of the mainstream moviegoing community, Darabont seems to think that the film's core premise didn't inherently appeal to audiences. When audiences see prestigious actors like Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman starring in a movie primarily set within the confines of a grim and gray prison, they expect a downer of a movie, and that prevents them from seeing it. On the other hand, if the movie had been advertised as an upbeat thriller, people would've been far more willing to check it out.

At first it almost sounds like he's insulting the intelligence of the average moviegoer, but he's not entirely off base with his assertion. Despite the fact that the Stephen King adaptation is actually one of the most inspiring and hopeful cinematic tales of all time, it very much masks itself as a somber film. The masses don't turn out in droves for a movie that they think will depress them -- even if that movie will go on to become arguably the greatest movie of all time.

Looking back it almost seems silly. By taking the film's marketing at face value, members of the audience who opted not to see Shawshank back in 1994 missed out on the amazing catharsis of Andy Dufresne's escape.

What are your thoughts on Frank Darabont's statement? Is he right, or is he not giving audiences enough credit? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. If there's anything left to say, it's this: get busy living or get busy dying.

Few shows go through showrunners like The Walking Dead. Over the course of the show’s six seasons, it has had no less than three men take the reigns. Although the show certainly hit its stride in Season 4 when Scott Gimple stepped in, we all remember the decidedly different direction of the series when Frank Darabont found himself behind the wheel. His departure sparked a change for the zombie series, and left a lasting impact on members of the cast.

Speaking with EW, series lead Andrew Lincoln explained how difficult it was to see Frank Darabont fired by AMC:

So it seems safe to assume that Darabont’s departure from The Walking Dead didn’t exactly go over smoothly with the cast. As the man who brought much of the cast into the fold, he’s very much responsible for helping actors like Andrew Lincoln achieve the success they currently experience today. Despite creating the landmark zombie series, Frank Darabont departed the series following its first season after a fairly public dispute with AMC. He would even eventually go on to sue the network, claiming the show’s profits belonged to him for creating the series. After his departure, showrunner Glen Mazzara was brought in for Seasons 2 and 3, but – like Darabont – parted ways with the network before they finally brought Scott Gimple on board.

Frank Darabont has had an incredibly successful career outside of The Walking Dead. In addition to creating the wildly popular zombie series, he has directed numerous cult classic films such as The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist. Many actors from his film endeavors ultimately ended up on The Walking Dead – such as Melissa McBride and Laurie Holden – so clearly actors enjoy working with him on a multitude of projects.

Although Norman Reedus – who portrays everyone’s favorite redneck, Daryl Dixon – did not become as well acquainted with Frank Darabont as other members of the cast, he also lamented the original showrunner’s firing, reminiscing on how enjoyable Darabont was to work with during a portion of The Walking Dead’s second season:

The dispute between Darabont and AMC continues to burn hot, and we will bring you updates on the conflict as they become available to us. In the meantime, you can still catch The Walking Dead every Sunday on AMC at 9 p.m. EST.

It’s no secret that the behind-the-scenes goings-on for hit TV shows aren’t always so smooth and easy-going, and one of the biggest battles in recent years took place between Frank Darabont and AMC over the filmmaker’s short tenure as showrunner on The Walking Dead. Darabont has been vocal in the past about his displeasure over getting fired and allegedly getting swindled out of millions of dollars in profits – and the ongoing legal case is certainly a sign of it – but now the full story has come out thanks to the recently unsealed deposition Darabont gave in court. Here’s what he says is the “official” reason for his termination.

For those unaware, tone meetings take place between showrunners and directors to cover how each episode is supposed to be presented as far as tone goes. In the grand scheme of things, this is obviously not the most egregious dispute that a network can have with someone, even if Frank Darabont hadn’t actually been having those meetings. So it’s no surprise that Darabont (and probably a lot of other people) think that this reason is garbage.

Also unsurprisingly, Darabont had a lot of other things to say about AMC and their practices during his time on the show, and none of them were good. It was widely reported that budget issues were at the center of Darabont’s problems with AMC, and he again said that the network wanted him to reduce the episode budgets while also producing more episodes, all while AMC was keeping tax credits for itself. He also said network execs had no respect for how hard the cast and crew were working, and that their visits to the hot Georgia sets would be mostly spent inside air-conditioned areas. Another large blow came when he decided Season 2’s first episode needed some reshoots, something he says another network exec agreed to, but that she later lied to everyone else and said that conversation never happened, which certainly didn’t help him.

AMC has obviously been defending itself over this, but Darabont had some backup from Glen Mazzara, who took over showrunner duties for Season 2 and later left over creative differences. According to THR, Mazzara believes that AMC was very unfair to Frank Darabont, and that he should be credited with conceiving some of the biggest moments in Season 2. He also said this:

Since leaving The Walking Dead, Darabont took some of that show’s actors and put together the shortlived TNT drama Mob City. As fans, we’re hoping that something reasonable comes of this legal case and that Darabont can get back to creating more classic movies and TV shows with a clear head.

After years of development, and a decent period of excitement after the project had landed True Detective director Cary Fukunaga, the big screen adaptation of It lost its helmer this week. Creative differences were the cause of the split, and considering that New Line was bristling at the multi-film approach, as well as Will Poulter being cast as Pennywise, we can’t blame the man for walking. Unfortunately, that leaves us without a new, legitimately creepy clown movie to replenish our nightmares, and we’re not ok with that at all.

While the project is shelved indefinitely, that’s probably studio talk for, "Quick! Run through your contact list and see who we can bring in on short notice!" Which means it’s time to select either a fresh talent, or a seasoned hand, from the ranks of the Horror genre who would be up for the challenge. As luck would have it, we have five names that popped into view faster than a surprise bouquet of balloons jumping out of a mailbox. So come flip through the photo album with us, and see the directors that stared directly into our souls as the next visionary to bring It to the silver screen.

David Robert Mitchell

Coincidentally, David Robert Mitchell's last film -- It Follows -- has a title that screams that he's ready for King's novel. But superficial reasons aside, Mitchell’s work on this year’s break-out indie hit has all the makings of a frontrunner candidate for bringing the world of Derry, Maine to life. With his handling of the retro aesthetic, as well as the general moodiness of It Follows’ sleepy suburban community, David Robert Mitchell is a prime candidate to tell the story of childhood friends coming home to the terror that has plagued them throughout their lives.

Considering David Robert Mitchell also helped make an overnight sensation of Maika Monroe in It Follows, he could use his connections to potentially cast her as Beverly in the core group of leads (unless she's too young...). He could also give Will Poulter the catapult he needs into becoming a lead to be reckoned with as his Pennywise.

Adam Wingard

To handle the story of It requires not only the proper chops to execute the horror end of the equation, but also the skill to balance the nostalgic qualities of the story. With titles such as V/H/S, You’re Next and The Guest on his resume, it’s a clear call that Adam Wingard more than deserves to be on this potential list of It suitors. What makes Wingard’s films so much fun is that he, along with usual suspect Simon Barrett behind the writer’s desk, is so firmly planted in nostalgic genre fare that he creates legitimate pieces of it in a modern context.

In the case of It, it wouldn't be a stretch to see Wingard bringing Barrett on for some quick punch up and re-writes to the original script, and set the film’s flashbacks in the 1980’s, rather than the original 1950’s of the book. Should he be allowed to play that card, you can expect a seriously detailed recreation of the era, with period appropriate music, as well. While it’s against the original letter of the book, it’d be a cool way to try and bring in the audiences of today.

Jennifer Kent

The Babadook is, without a doubt, a solid horror film that uses atmosphere and just the right amount of imagery to scare its audience. It’s not an on-the-nose, jump-scare-and-a-half picture; but instead, it broods in its sorrow, rather than merely screaming its presence. This is why director Jennifer Kent would be an amazing choice to tell a story that, in part, deals with mourning the loss of innocence – as well as the supernatural murder of protagonist Bill’s brother.

An It adaptation under Kent’s watchful eye would surely remember to be scary; as her treatment of The Babadook was pretty creepy in its own, wonderful right. However, her advantage over the field of candidates is the fact that she has the emotional storytelling ability to show our main characters for who they are – a scared bunch of kids, at the feet of a menacing terror that won’t let them go.

Frank Darabont

If you’re going to talk about a Stephen King adaptation, then you’ve got to make room for Frank Darabont. It’s pretty much federally mandated, considering the work he did on The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and even The Mist. The man writes and directs, acting as a dual threat that’s already King approved. If Darabont can write a new ending to the source material that even Stephen King loved, then he’s surely a great candidate for the It gig.

So what does Frank Darabont bring to the table that no one else does? Prestige. The name Shawshank still holds up in film circles these days, and with the character-driven action of that film cross-bred with the paranoia and horror of The Mist, you can’t lose. Though we can’t help but think that if Darabont were to come onto the project, he’d do a bit of an overhaul on the script – as well as push for the multi-film approach. The best part is, he’d have the clout to make the film his way, and not get pushed around by the studio.

Guillermo Del Toro

Any list that doesn’t make Frank Darabont the best choice for directing a Stephen King adaptation possesses one of two things: a complete lack of understanding of King’s oeuvre, or a really killer top choice. We’d like to think we have the latter, as Guillermo Del Toro’s twisted heart could very easily make room for Pennywise the clown and his antics, especially considering the dark fairy tale sensibilities on display in many of del Toro's other films.

This comes at a cost though, as those of you who love Will Poulter as Pennywise will probably be disappointed – considering that this role would be a ripe opportunity to cast Ron Perlman as the killer clown himself. If any of you King faithfuls remember the miniseries adaptation of Desperation, then you just might be thankful for this stroke of luck as Perlman gained some King cred with his performance as Deputy Collie Entragian.

So there you go: five directors whose agents should be on the phone with New Line right now, jockeying for the position of being the next director to earn their fright wings with Stephen King’s classic tale of nostalgia, terror, and grease paint. Or perhaps they should hire a messenger to go around to the studio grounds, and deliver some balloons. Maybe they can tell a couple jokes, flash some teeth, you know… whatever gets the job done.

It’s becoming harder and harder for any filmmaker to get funding for their projects these days. In the past few weeks both David Fincher and Ang Lee have had to withdraw from projects because of the interference from the higher-ups. Nowadays, it seems as though studios are only willing to either splash out hundreds of millions of dollars on blockbusters with an established fan-base, or throw a couple of million at a low-risk, low-budget effort that might strike a chord and become hugely popular.

In the heyday of creative movie-making, the 1970s, filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese were given a wide berth of creative freedom by various Hollywood studios to create the films that they wanted to make, without the pressure of profitability, and with only artistic intentions in mind. They didn’t have to worry about the film’s intended audience or whether intimidating blockbusters would squash its release. Instead, their films were made to show just how powerful, intimate and extraordinary cinema could be.

Or maybe that’s just a naïve and rose-tinted view of how Hollywood was. Because there’s always been a struggle between financiers and filmmakers, and even some of the greats never managed to get certain dream projects off the ground. Don’t believe me? Just check out the list below…

Darren Aronofosky, Batman Year One

Would a Darren Aronofksy film have inspired the barrage of mature, grounded super-hero films in the same manner as Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins? I’m not so sure. Nolan’s Memento teemed with mainstream potential, while Aronofsky’s work has always been delightfully singular and impossible to either pigeonhole or imitate. That’s probably why it was good that Aronofksy eventually dropped out of his proposed fifth film in the Batman franchise: Batman: Year One. You can’t help but wonder, though, what he would have brought to the series. The Pi filmmaker worked alongside Frank Miller -- who wrote the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns -- on the screenplay, and he even declared, "Toss out everything you can imagine about Batman! Everything! We’re starting completely anew." Warner Bros. eventually decided that Aronofsky’s R-rated Batman pitch aimed at adult fans, which included a suicidal Jim Gordon, an African-American Alfred, and a more guerrilla-style Batman, was just too risky. Aronofksy has since admitted that he’d have still cast Christian Bale, though.

Frank Darabont, Indiana Jones 4

Back in 2003, Shawshank Redemption’s Frank Darabont was trying to get an Indy film of his own off the ground. It was entitled Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods, and apparently Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford both absolutely adored the script. Anticipation around a new addition to the franchise gathered more and more momentum, until George Lucas intervened. The Star Wars director declared that he wasn’t interested, and it quickly fell apart. Adamant that the film would make an incredible fourth installment to the series, Darabont even told MTV that he confronted Lucas and declared, "You have a fantastic script. I think you’re insane." Unfortunately, Lucas didn’t react well to these remarks, and, as a result, the film entered movie-limbo, where it has never materialized from since.

John Hughes, National Lampoon’s Jaws 3, People 0

Outside of Steven Spielberg’s sumptuously, superb original; there isn’t much to love about the Jaws franchise. Jaws 2, 3-D and The Revenge are regarded as diabolical knock-offs of the 1975 classic. But had John Hughes’ script for the third installment to the series been greenlit, he wouldn’t have just taken it in a completely different direction by combining it with another hugely popular franchise -- The National Lampoon. According to Splitsider, Hughes was an unknown who hadn’t even written a screenplay when his boss at the National Lampoon publisher, Matty Simmons, offered him National Lampoon’s Jaws 3, People 0. Universal eventually pull the plug, though, because Steven Spielberg thought it would demean the franchise. He even threatened to leave the studio if they proceeded. On a more positive note though, this is how Hughes entered the movie industry. Jaws 3-D, meanwhile, surely did more damage than a National Lampoon version ever could.

Steven Soderbergh, Cleopatra

The most recent entry on the list, Soberbergh envisioned that his Cleopatra would be a 3-D rock musical that starred Catherine Zeta-Jones and consisted of songs from Guided By Voices’ Robert Pollard. A $30 million budget was organized, while Hugh Jackman and Ray Winstone were attached to star. But when Wolverine dropped out back in 2009, Soderbergh realized that his full slate had gone off-schedule, so the entire project deflated. There have been some discussions that it would find a new home on Broadway, but that never materialized.

Stanley Kubrick, Napoleon

One of the greatest minds to ever step-foot behind a camera, Kubrick had a number of cinematic efforts that he was never able to find funding for. But there is one in particular that movie scholars and experts despair over immensely. Buoyed by the success of 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1969, Kubrick set out to make an epic biography of Napoleon Bonaparte. He conducted research, intimately reading dozens, if not hundreds of books, on the French emperor, scouted locations across Europe, and even made a deal with the Romanian army to let him use 50,000 of their troops for filming, before spiraling budget estimates and the release of the 1970 flop, Waterloo, convinced Kubrick to make Barry Lyndon instead. According to Taschen’s comprehensive book, Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon, The Greatest Movie Never Made, Kubrick even started to imitate the legendary figure's eating habits. Now that's dedication.

Charlie Chaplin, Napoleon

It’s probably safe to assume that Chaplin’s depiction of Napoleon would have been slightly different to Kubrick’s. It just goes to show how delightfully askew Chaplin’s mind was, that he reportedly saw something deeply comic about Bonaparte’s eyes, and even his pose. Chaplin developed several screenplays for a project that he never filmed (and simply referred to as N, according to a visual essay by Chaplin archivist, Cecilia Cenciarelli). Chaplin also found himself receiving advice from none-other than Winston Churchill. But when he eventually became aware that his cinematic dream would never be realized, he used the material he’d collected to help him with his satire on Hitler in his seminal 1941 masterpiece, The Great Dictator.

Alfred Hitchcock, Titanic

Alfred Hitchcock’s debut in American cinema could have been oh so different. Having wowed Hollywood from afar with his British cinematic exploits, Hitchcock decided to make the trek across the Atlantic. When he arrived, his first planned picture was supposed to be a drama about the sinking of the Titanic, which would be produced by David O. Selznick. It was even reported that the movie heavyweight planned to buy the SS Leviathan and sink it for production. Despite the fact that Selznick and Hitchcock seriously wanted to make the movie, it never really got close to production. In fact there wasn’t even a script, except for a 20-page treatment (that is difficult to dig up). Instead Hitchcock made Rebecca, which was a huge hit, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Orson Welles, Heart Of Darkness

Having adapted Joseph Conrad’s epic novel for radio, Welles wanted Heart Of Darkness to be his first foray onto the big screen. However, there were reported issues from the get-go. Welles’ script clocked in at a whooping 184 pages, while the amount of special effects work needed, the huge jungle set planned, and excessive use of POV, led R.K.O’s interests to cool. The final nail in this cinematic coffin came when it was predicted that the film’s budget would be more than $1 million. Welles was told to make another film. He decided on Citizen Kane, and eventually Francis Ford Coppola turned Heart Of Darkness into Apocalypse Now. It’s hard to say that things didn’t turn out for the best of both counts.

Mel Gibson, Fahrenheit 451

Would the world have a better opinion of Mel Gibson if he’d made Fahrenheit 451? Probably not, but it's worth noting that Gibson was a stellar filmmaker before his private conversations doomed him in the court of public opinion. Years ago, Gibson planned to direct a remake of Francois Truffaut’s 1966 adaptation of Bradbury’s seminal novel, which is set in a future world where books are outlawed and burned. He even planned to cast Brad Pitt in the leading role. But the project ended up being delayed for a number of years as Gibson moved to other films. His private conflicts temporarily derailed his career, though Gibson has been returning to acting gigs. He may return to the director's chair some day, but nothing has been heard of this film in years.

John Huston, Harrow Alley

Allegedly one of the greatest scripts to never be produced, Walter Brown Newman’s period drama revolved around the black plague ripping through a 17th century English town. As you can imagine, it wasn’t full of laughs. Unfortunately it was a case of a great script landing at the wrong time. The film’s rather depressing subject matter was an obstacle. One producer told Newman, "I read it on a rainy Sunday and damn near committed suicide." The proposed film faced a nap-inducing run time, according to reports. Meanwhile, the collapse of the studio-system in the 1960s meant that there wasn’t a whole host of producers or studios lining up to bring the film to the big screen. Legendary director John Huston was the closest man who came to doing so. Despite his previous clout, though, he’d had a string of flops by the time he wanted to make Harrow Alley, and financiers wouldn’t let him near it. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.

When a TV show is filled with as much surprising death and mayhem as AMC’s The Walking Dead, you'd think the conversational spotlight would remain focused on its main characters' survival, not necessarily who they’re attracted to. Yet when it comes to Norman Reedus’ Daryl Dixon, cable’s most crossbow-ready warrior, a growing section of the show's audience members are curious about whether or not he’s gay. According to Reedus, we may never get a frank answer from the character himself.

Speaking with GQ, Reedus discussed Daryl potentially being a virgin, which is also still up in the air, and then he revealed some insight into the character’s early development.

Of course, Darabont got fired after that under completely unrelated circumstances, so we can’t consider his initial vision to be a continuous part of The Walking Dead universe. However, since Reedus is still a part of the show, and still has that story fresh in his mind, it’s entirely plausible that the actor will stick to those guns on this issue should current showrunner Scott Gimple and comic creator/writer Robert Kirkman ever overtly breach the topic. Daryl doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would murder a fellow survivor based solely on their conception of his sexuality, but then again, we don’t really know that much about him. (Although seriously, who else in this frazzled group of dudes would he find attractive?)

Not that we have any reason to believe Gimple will cover that ground any time soon. Last month, he talked about the perception that people have of the character, but rather than stating whether or not audiences would get clued in, he just attributed it to the way Reedus plays the character. He’s definitely a guarded guy and doesn’t share much about himself or his feelings – Daryl doesn’t even say when he’s hungry, really – and according to Reedus, Daryl’s relative silence is strongly the actor’s choice.

“He’s definitely not a ladies’ man or thinks of himself as having enough confidence to be that type of person,” Reedus said. “I want to play him searching for confidence, not full of confidence…I like all the little things that are awkward.” I’m pretty sure Daryl’s gigantic fanbase sees the character as everything BUT awkward and lacking confidence. He’s a total badass, but not one defined by his attractions.

The Walking Dead Season 5 will debut on Sunday, October 12, so audiences will be able to read into every single thing the character does. Watch his eyes, and hope that he doesn’t wear sunglasses.

Twenty years ago this week, the film that we all know and love as The Shawshank Redemption was released in theaters. What started as a theatrical bomb that made little to no noise at the box office turned into a massive home video hit, a cable viewing staple for any good lazy weekend, and the top film on IMDB's top 250 list. What makes Frank Darabont's first motion picture in the director's chair different from any under-appreciated gem in the last 20 years of filmmaking is that for all intents and purposes, it's a perfect film.

Every line, every note, and every moment of The Shawshank Redemption hits you the exact same way that it did the first time you saw it. It's eminently quotable, memorably beautiful, and reads like an adult's bedtime story through the smooth voice of Morgan Freeman. Yet Shawshank's perfection lies not in the fact that everyone remembers a piece of it to call their own favorite moment, but it's the fact that there's such a wealth of moments to enjoy that when the film is mentioned in conversation, its genius is honored in so many different ways. In honor of the 20th anniversary of The Shawshank Redemption, here now are ten of the most iconic moments (besides the obvious choice of Andy in the rain after his escape) that make the story of Andy Dufresne a classic not only in age but also in storytelling.

This feature will contain numerous spoilers for The Shawshank Redemption. You have been warned.

Andy's Moment Of Weakness

We open The Shawshank Redemption with a good look at a drunk and desperate Andy Dufresne, played with expert style and brilliance by Tim Robbins. Drunk as all get out, and loading a gun to presumably kill his wife and her lover, we're shuttled back and forth between the night in question and the legal proceedings that will ultimately send Andy to Shawshank.

If this were any other film, those in charge would probably want us to know flat out that Andy didn't do it. Instead of taking that shortcut, Frank Darabont lets us mull over the possibility of whether Andy murdered the pair or not, so as to make it all the more rewarding when we take a shine to him, only to later find out that he is innocent.

Tommy Acquits Andy

As previously stated, the beginning of The Shawshank Redemption gives the prosecution and the audience a reasonable case to question whether or not Andy Dufrense was capable of murdering his wife and her lover. The state that he's in, matched with the icy demeanor he shows as he's put on trial work against Dufrense's defense, thus dooming him to his incarceration.

Yet one flashback/monologue ultimately acquits the character we've spent the entire film thus far identifying with, getting to know and like. In this acquittal, Frank Darabont not only acquits Andy of any wrongdoing, he acquits the audience for rooting for him. The mix of sorrow and joy is shared by both parties, and what happens after is just as equally invested between both sides of the screen.

Building The Library

Through dogged determination -- as well as a lot of paper, ink, and postage -- Andy Dufrense wages a one-man war with the government of the fine state of Maine. His endgame is to secure funds for the prison library, in hopes that the inmates will be able to enrich their minds and feel just a little bit more like free men in their time of imprisonment. Through one of the film's more comedic moments, his letters are ignored by the government, only to finally be answered.

When Andy Dufrense finds that answer (and it's monetary amount) unsatisfactory, he wages a second campaign that ultimately results in the library being given a regular amount of funding ($500 a year). Andy has proven yet again that he's a force to be reckoned with, and The Shawshank Redemption cements itself as a feel-good movie at its very core. Instead of hitting you over the head with its good deeds, it pokes some good-natured fun at them, while ultimately recognizing their importance.

Brooks' Final Days

As ultimately redeeming as The Shawshank Redemption truly is, it does have its fair share of tragic moments. One such moment is told through the eyes of Brooks Hatlen, a prisoner from the main gang we follow through Shawshank who is paroled after 49 years of institutionalization. While he makes his best effort, Hadlen ultimately can't handle the modern world and its fast paced ways.

With no support system and no help on the outside, Brooks ultimately takes his life after one last letter to his pals. At face value, this isn't a moment that would belong on a list like this; but I've chosen to include it because it develops the stakes of the film subtly. The whole time that Andy is yearning for his freedom from the walls of Shawshank, he's living among friends that fear that freedom because it could kill them faster than prison ever could.

Beers On The Roof

Morgan Freeman's role as Red is iconic for so many reasons. Chiefly among them the fact that his voiceover bathes the film's moments -- even the grimy ones -- in the glow of a bedtime story. One such moment that reflects this is the scene where, after Andy squirrels his way into the good graces of the guards on the roof of the prison, he and his compatriots enjoy an "icy cold Bohemia-style beer, courtesy of the hardest screw that ever walked a turn at Shawshank."

It's Morgan Freeman's voice over that ties this film together, both tempering the tragedy and enhancing the humor, but without going overboard on either side of the spectrum. More importantly, through this scene in particular, Red's retelling of Andy's story shows how the man he thought would crack first in his class of prisoners gave everyone he became friends with the hope and humanity that the prison experience took away from them. It's something that later saves Red's life, and in a big way.

Andy The Accountant

Andy Dufrense's usefulness as an accountant, as well as his tenacity, help keep him sane during his almost two decades in prison. In addition to keeping himself sane, it helps keep Andy in the good graces of guards that aren't even in the same prison as he is. After offering some free tax advice (that almost gets him killed), word spreads that Andy's a hell of a money man. In fact, the way that he works his tax magic for everyone and anyone, it's amazing that he wasn't already in prison on some sort of tax fraud charges.

Andy earns favor through his intelligence, and it you can see it make him so happy to be in charge of the guards that are in charge of him for once. If there's anything Andy values above all else in this world, it's his intellect; and his little accounting firm only helps keep him sharp. That sharpness comes in handy, as this not only gives him the cover for his escape, it also helps him net a huge chunk of cash to live on.

Andy Explains The Scheme

While working in his newly built prison library, Andy and Red discuss the financial scheme that he and Warden Norton are embarking upon with all of the kickbacks coming in to Shawshank Prison, courtesy of various public works projects. Red, curious as ever, wonders about the ins and outs of money laundering, as he's concerned about his friend's welfare.

With a smile on his face and a glint in his eye, Andy tells Red that it won't be he who ends up in front of a judge this time... it will be a phantom of a man that does. This moment is so infused with such child-like glee as Tim Robbins' Andy explains to Morgan Freeman's Red just how smart he is when it comes to cooking the books. Robbins' happiness is infectious, because not only does it flavor a standard moment of exposition for setting up the film's third-act twist, it's just so good to see Andy smile like a free man again.

A Day At The Opera

You know those moments where you share a movie or song you love with friends who've never experienced it before, and they turn out to be truly moved by its beauty? That's exactly what Andy attempts, and succeeds in doing, when he takes over the prison loudspeaker and plays "Duettino Sull' Aria from The Marriage Of Figaro, thus landing him in some hot water with the screws.

Andy Dufrense might be a culture vulture, but he's not above sharing with his friends inside. In fact, it helps him teach them the ultimate lesson about how to survive during their time in prison. It's the lesson that all of his actions throughout his tie in Shawshank have sprung out of: hope keeps a man alive. With art and the relative comforts of home, Andy manages to do just that for himself and all of his friends.

"His Judgement Cometh"

Throughout The Shawshank Redemption, Warden Norton (played by the always impressive "that guy," Bob Gunton) is equally a menace and a mentor to Andy. One moment he's swapping bible passages and allowing minor contraband in exchange for some minor money laundering, the next he's killing the only person that knows Dufrense is innocent in order to keep that operation going.

Yet the best moment in Warden Norton's arc has to be his attempted apprehension, and eventual suicide. Frank Darabont, in the injust and cruel world he created in the context of The Shawshank Redemption, manages to prove that even in an unfair world, the scales sometimes tip in the favor of the heroes. It is also a master class in building tension within such a fast-moving scene, especially coming off the high the audience should have experienced when they saw just how Andy escaped.

Thick As Thieves

If Red had killed himself at the end of The Shawshank Redemption, the whole film would have collapsed on itself. While a fair share of people who didn't deserve to die did just that, to have followed up the investment of all that time and energy into Red's parole hearings with a tragic suicide would have just crushed the audience like there's no tomorrow.

That's not the type of movie that Frank Darabont was setting out to make. Nor was it the type of story that Stephen King was setting out to tell in his original novella. The main thrust of The Shawshank Redemption is that no matter how wicked we are, no matter how far gone or ruthless people may see us, you can always turn it around with kindness and generosity.

It's no fluke that The Shawshank Redemption became a slow-burning hit after its home video release. Much like the prisoners who lived in the cells at the jail it told its story in, people believed in the story of Andy Dufrense and his pal Red. They've enjoyed the hell out of it for the two decades it's been around, and it looks like it'll still be going strong more than two decades from this very writing.

Frank Darabont managed one of those rare feats in Hollywood: he knocked it out of the park with his first at bat, and he has continued to impress ever since. The Shawshank Redemption will always be his crown jewel, as it has not aged a day since its first viewing. Like a freshly polished pair of shoes, it stands out if you know what to look for, and it serves you right. I'd ask when the last time you saw The Shawshank Redemption was, but in the spirit of the film and the metaphor, I'll as a more appropriate question. When's the last time you really looked at a man's shoes?

Back in 2012, the fairy tale epic Snow White and the Huntsman turned out to be a pretty mixed bag. Made for a high $170 million, the film was able to make nearly $400 million at the global box office, but it also suffered the wrath of sequel or spin-off for years, but nothing has ever materialized. Now something is finally coming together, but it's probably nothing like what you thought it was going to be.

The Wrap has not only gotten word that The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont is now lining up to direct Snow White and the Huntsman 2, but also that the film will be shifting gears to focus the Huntsman - played by Chris Hemsworth - and is cutting Kristen Stewart out of the story completely. The script is still being put together so nothing is permanent at this stage (sadly no writer is mentioned), but the trade says that "if Stewart does return, her appearance [will] likely be limited to a cameo or a handful of brief scenes." If this does pan out, we can probably expect that the title of the project will drop the "Snow White" part. Perhaps just The Huntsman?

While Stewart's return looks iffy at best, what's interesting is that the film's other female lead is expected to come back for Snow White and the Huntsman 2. Charlize Theron, who played the evil Queen Ravenna in the first movie, is apparently attached to reprise her role. At the end of the last film the character is seen trapped inside her own magic mirror. How she returns is anyone's guess at this point.

From Universal Pictures' stand-point, this idea does make a good amount of sense. Kristen Stewart's brand has certainly weakened to a certain degree thanks to the end of the Twilight franchise, and Chris Hemsworth's star power is just growing and growing. What's more, the performances by both Hemsworth and Theron were singled out by many critics as being the best part of Snow White and the Huntsman, so it's hard to blame the studio for focusing on the best elements for the sequel.

Darabont hasn't gotten an official offer for the job yet, but The Wrap says that he beat out both Warrior's Gavin O'Connor and Mama's Andy Muschietti for the gig. The director has had a good deal of success on the big screen in the past, having helmed movies like The Green Mile and The Mist, but most recently his focus has been on television. He was the showrunner on the first season of AMC's show The Walking Dead and both wrote and directed multiple episodes of the series Mob City. Talks with him for the Snow White and the Huntsman 2 gig are expected to begin soon and because Universal is looking to have the movie in theaters in 2016, we can probably expect that production on the sequel won't start until sometime next year.

Chris Hemsworth, you sexy beast you. With Chris Evans thinking retirement, Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner working in indies and Scarlett Johansson taking on several supporting roles, Hemsworth is the only Avenger actively trying to reach the level of Iron Man A-Lister Robert Downey Jr. The question is, are franchise commitments going to help or hurt Chris Hemsworth?

Deadline reports that Hemsworth is contractually obligated to return for Snow White And The Huntsman 2, and that they are exercising his option within the next couple of months upon the completion of Avengers: Age Of Ultron. That means that Hemsworth had to reject the chance to star in the sci-fi thriller Brilliance, which was originally going to feature Will Smith in the lead.

Also returning to Snow White And The Huntsman 2 is Kristen Stewart, making this an expensive reunion of sorts. The first film cost $170 million and only pulled in $155 million domestically. Global numbers saved the picture, as it closed with $396 million worldwide, but that's not a knockout number considering how expensive the film was. Nonetheless, despite the suggestion that the sequel could feature only Snow White, or only the Huntsman, both will be returning, a surprise considering all the drama behind the scenes of the first film: most people think of this movie as the one that broke up the hallowed Stewart-Robert Pattinson union, when she had an affair with director Rupert Sanders.

And who will steward this ship? Universal is courting a pretty impressive trio for the director's chair now that Sanders isn't returning (and because the movie has to heavily outgross the original to make this franchise worth it). The biggest name in the mix for the gig is Frank Darabont, recently of the AMC series The Walking Dead. The last movie Darabont directed was 2007's The Mist, a spooky chiller from Stephen King's house of horrors. That said, Darabont is probably best known for making The Shawshank Redemption, the only film that, at every single minute, is playing on some television station somewhere in the world.

Frequent short-list participant Gavin O'Connor is also a possibility for Snow White and the Huntsman 2. O'Conner has made a living out of being rumored for directing gigs, and he's currently putting the finishing touches on Jane Got A Gun, where he steadied a troubled project after Lynne Ramsey, the film's original director, bailed on the first day of production. O'Conner's credits include Warrior and Pride And Glory, and he'd bring a gritty edge to the film.

The third contender for the gig is the suddenly-available Andy Muschietti, who became a known name in Hollywood thanks to his directorial debut, Mama. It's interesting that Universal wants to be in business with him give that he recently vacated the director's chair for their reboot of The Mummy. He'd be the freshest and cheapest option for Snow White And The Huntsman 2, but we still don't know what Muschietti can do with a budget quite yet. According to Deadline's report, the intention is to have the movie ready to be released in 2016.

Since his departure from The Walking Dead, fans of Frank Darabont have been waiting for his next project. For a while, we've known that project would be Mob City -- formerly known as L.A. Noir -- a drama he's been developing for TNT. While we still have months to go before the series debuts, we're starting to see some finished promotional material for the drama. That includes two dark and glamorous new posters that seem to go out of their way to sell sex and violence individually.

The above poster is the "violence" as we're treated to the sight of Ed Burns pointing a gun almost directly at the camera, and Jon Bernthal looking particularly tough-guy, with his head back and a cigarette hanging off his lip. Its black and white and looks kind of like a newspaper photo, which adds a nice vintage element to it, as though the hats and Burns' jacket don't already do that. The tagline is, "Where the good become bad and the bad become gods."

And on the sexy side, we have this next one, which trades guns and hates for a feathery fan to cover the mysterious woman's backside…

The woman is in silhouette with her back to us, but it's clear she's naked, or mostly naked, anyway. And instead of a tagline, this one reminds us that this is Frank Darabont's new show.

Both posters include the date, December 4, 2013, which seems like it's really far away, but is actually only a few months.

The posters come about a month after the arrival of the first sneak peek of Mob City. Catch it below:

Written and directed by Frank Darabont, Mob City is set in Los Angeles in the 1940s and stars Bernthal and Burns, along with Jeffrey DeMunn, Neal McDonough, Gregory Itzin, Robert Knepper, Milo Ventimiglia, Alexa Davalos and Jeremy Luke.

Frank Darabont has proven himself a skilled filmmaker and storyteller when it comes to the work of Stephen King and Robert Kirkland, but his next big effort takes him into uncharted waters, a.k.a. kaiju territory. Earlier this month it was revealed that the Shawshank Redemption director had been hired by Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. to rewrite the script for the upcoming Godzilla reboot from director Gareth Edwards (Monsters). But what does Darabont have in mind for the giant Japanese monster? What can we expect?

iO9 recently had the chance to sit down with the filmmaker (along with Being Human star Sam Witwer and poster artist Drew Struzan) and took the opportunity to pry a little about Darabon't latest project. Beginning on the subject of Godzilla's subtext and origin, the writer/director noted that original movies featured Godzilla as a metaphor for the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while in the later one's "he became Clifford the Big Red Dog." With his script, however, the context and tone will be changing again.

"What we're trying to do with the new movie is not have it camp, not have it be campy," Darabont told the site. "We're kind of taking a cool new look at it. But with a lot of tradition in the first film. We want this to be a terrifying force of nature. And what was really cool, for me, is there was a very compelling human drama that I got to weave into it. It's not that cliched, thinly disguised romance or bromance, or whatever. It's different, it's a different set of circumstances than you're used to seeing. And that's tremendously exciting as a writer when you're asked to do something else."

He also confirmed that the new movie will take on an allegorical meaning, but didn't want "to give it away." But for those of you afraid that the film will try and beat you over the head with a social message, leave your concerns behind. "I love leaving a few crumbs on the table for the audience to determine what they think," Darabont explained. "Let them bring something to it as well. That's why a movie like The Green Mile is so satisfying or why The Mist is so satisfying to me. Because it stirs their participation and they have interpretation. I've heard metaphors that people apply to Shawshank Redemption, for example, that are fantastic that I never, ever would have thought of."

Godzilla is currently slated to be released May 16, 2014 and you can find out more about the movie by heading over to our Blend Film Database.

Frank Darabont, the filmmaker best known for bringing us The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and the first season of The Walking Dead, is turning his attention to giant skyscraper-sized Japanese monsters. As casting rumors have begun to fly, it's been revealed that Darabont has been hired by Legendary Pictures to do a final rewrite of the upcoming Godzilla reboot. Up until now the project has been working from a script written by Max Borenstein (who wrote the upcoming fantasy adventure The Seventh Son), but with cameras aiming to start rolling in March the studio has decided to get a new set of eyes on the screenplay.

The Darabont news comes from Deadline, but is just the latest story today about the film's development. In addition to news that Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scoot McNairy and Caleb Landry Jones are being considered for the movie's lead role, it's also been revealed that there has been some turmoil behind the scenes, with a battle brewing between Legendary Pictures and producers Dan Lin and Roy Lee (who brought the project to the studio to begin with. Gareth Edwards, who gained notice and acclaim for his 2010 indie thriller Monsters is still attached to direct and the 3D film is still aiming to be released on May 16, 2014.

The project will actually serve to be a bit of a switch for Darabont, who has focused more of his attention on the small screen in recent years. In addition to The Walking Dead he's also been developing the new series L.A. Noir, a new crime thriller for TNT. His last work on the big screen was his third Stephen King adaptation, The Mist, which was released in 2007.

Since his unexpected exit from The Walking Dead last year, Frank Darabont has been developing a pilot for TNT tentatively titled L.A. Noir. Among the stars of the project, TWD's Jon Bernthal and Jeffrey DeMunn. Word has finally come in on the fate of the pilot and it's good news! TNT announced today that they've picked it up to series.

According to the network's announcement, they've given the drama a six episode order. They refer to it as an untitled project, so it sounds like they haven't settled on calling it L.A. Noir, officially anyway. The series will focus on the decades-long conflict between Police Chief William Parker at the L.A. Police Department, and former boxer/current crime leader Mickey Cohen. It sounds like old Hollywood glamour will set the scene, as the series takes place during the 40s and 50s in Los Angeles. Jon Bernthal (Shane from The Walking Dead) is on board to play Joe Teague, an ex-Marine who's now an LAPD cop. Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale from The Walking Dead) plays Detective Hal Morrison, "who heads up the LAPD's new mob squad, with Jeremy Strong (The Happening, Lincoln) as Det. Mike Hendry, Morrison's second in command."

Also among the cast are Neal McDonough, Milo Ventimiglia, Ron Rifkin, Pihla Viitala and Alexa Davalos. Simon Pegg is set to guest-star in the pilot as Hecky Nash, "a third-rate comedian and mob hanger-on." That should be funny and possibly some much needed comic relief in what sounds like a dark and dramatic plot. That is, until he gets himself whacked. That's just a guess, but it's a guest-starring role and I've seen enough mobster movies to know that sometimes the funny guy gets killed.

No word on when they plan on getting this project on the air, but hopefully that news will make the rounds soon enough, along with the official title.

If you haven't gotten caught up on the second season of The Walking Dead, read no further!

What is The Walking Dead's loss may be L.A. Noir's gain. The TNT drama pilot appears to be picking up the AMC dramas leavings, and it may be all the better for it, given the talent falling away from that show.

Created by The Walking Dead's Frank Darabont, L.A. Noir is a crime drama pilot that takes place in Los Angeles during the 40's/50's and follows the gangster Mickey Cohen and the police chief pursuing him. TV Guide posted the news that two more Walking Dead alums will join previously cast Jon Bernthal (also of TWD) in the pilot. Jeffrey DeMunn, who played Dale in TWD, has signed on to play "Hal Morrison," a detective on the LAPD. Meanwhile, Andrew Rothenberg, who was in the first season of the series, has been cast in a guest-starring role as "Eddy Sanderson," a man on Hal's team.

It's likely that fans of TWD are more familiar with DeMunn than Rothenberg in the series, as Dale lived for much longer, and his death was pretty devastating. However, Rothenberg's character Jim also had a memorable departure from the show. He was bitten when the walkers attacked the camp in Season 1, and suffered through the ordeal, refusing to shoot himself. The last we saw of him, he was dying on the side of the road. As tough as it was to see them leave TWD (especially Dale - I'm still not over that), it's great to know that both actors have found a new project, and hopefully one that'll find some of the same success on TNT that TWD has on AMC. Given the creator and the growing cast, the right ingredients are certainly falling into place.

Where Frank Darabont goes, Jon Bernthal may follow. Word is, the actor, who currently plays a pretty big role in AMC’s The Walking Dead may be looking to star in L.A. Noir, Darabont’s upcoming drama pilot for TNT. So, what does this mean for Shane on The Walking Dead?

From the sound of it, that may be looking a bit far ahead. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Bernthal, who plays Shane in The Walking Dead, is “circling the lead in Darabont’s TNT pilot, L.A. Noir.” Per THR’s report, it’s “unclear” whether or not this part, should he get it, means he’d be leaving The Walking Dead.

?As of right now, Bernthal’s character Shane plays a fairly big role in AMC’s zombie-drama The Walking Dead. So, assuming he gets this part and L.A. Noir goes to series, it’s very possible he’ll have to leave The Walking Dead. Given the dark nature of the AMC drama, which has people fairly regularly encountering flesh-eating zombie-types, killing off a major character isn’t an improbability, especially one who, from what I understand, has already outlived the comic book version of the character on which he’s based.

Bernthal migrating from the popular AMC drama to TNT would reunite him with Frank Darabont, who was the showrunner of The Walking Dead up until last summer. Darabont is not only set to write the pilot for L.A. Noir, which is described as a period mobster drama, but he’ll also direct. The role Bernthal is up for is Joe Teague, an LAPD cop “at the heart of the series that revolves around the police force's pursuit of mobster Mickey Cohen.”

At this point, the only thing confirmed is that he's up for the part, but it'll be very interesting to hear more news about this, especially if he's cast in the pilot and what it will mean for The Walking Dead, should the pilot be given a series order.

As it turns out, Frank Darabont's firing as the showrunner of AMC's The Walking Dead didn't just come as a surprise to the show's faithful fans, who had seen Darabont on a panel for the zombie series at San Diego Comic Con just days earlier. As documented in this in-depth, fascinating article in The Hollywood Reporter, Darabont had no idea he was about to be axed when he took the stage at Comic Con, and neither did the cast or crew of the show, who are now so terrified to talk about the problems behind the scenes that virtually none would go on the record for the article. As one insider grimly noted, "They're on a zombie show. They are all really easy to kill off."

The story laid out in the article, though, is not that unexpected for anyone who has followed AMC's negotiations with both Matthew Weiner and Vince Gilligan, the respective showrunners of their massive hits Mad Men and Breaking Bad. In short, the network is constantly trying to cut costs, which in Mad Men's case involved demanding more advertising time and a smaller budget. For The Walking Dead, they were asking Darabont to increase the number of episodes-- from the six-episode first season to thirteen in the second season-- while also slashing his budget. Darabont, the successful director of feature films like The Shawshank Redemption, didn't really take well to either network schedules or production practices; as one source said it, he is "notoriously a pain in the ass" for his approach.

But that pain in the ass also made The Walking Dead AMC's biggest hit, far outpacing the critically acclaimed but underwatched Mad Men and Breaking Bad. That massively packed Comic Con panel is all the evidence you really need that The Walking Dead is firmly in the cultural conversation, and as showrunner Darabont had a huge hand in that. Read the full THR article for all the dirty details about the tension behind the scenes, and also a ray of hope in the fact that new showrunner, Glen Mazzara, is an experienced talent who might be able to smoothly pick up the reins. No matter how talented he is, though, he'll be trying to replicate the successful formula of The Walking Dead but with less time and less money-- a huge, somewhat inexplicable hurdle for a network to put in front of their giant hit. If the show suffers in quality in this second season, it appears we'll know the network is to blame.

In a surprising bit of news, Frank Darabont has apparently stepped down as showrunner for AMC’s horror/drama series The Walking Dead. Details on his departure from the series are scarce, and it’s unknown whether or not he’ll remain attached to the show in some capacity.

The Hollywood Reporter posted the news, crediting an unspecified source (or sources) for the information. As the Reporter notes, no mention of Darabont’s departure was made at Comic-Con last Friday, when the cast, graphic-novel creator Robert Kirkman and Darabont took the stage to introduce an excellent new trailer for Season 2 and answer fan questions about the show.

It’s entirely possible that this is a rumor, however it’s also possible that AMC is withholding the official announcement until they have someone new lined up to take over Darabont’s role. I'm sure I'm not alone in being curious to learn more about this situation. Hopefully details will emerge soon.

As someone who hasn’t read the graphic novel (and is therefore, not judging the series based on how well the story and characters are adapted), I loved the first season. Those first six episodes, which introduced us to a group of people attempting to survive in a world infested by zombies, were some of the best TV 2010 had to offer. The shifts made in the writers room over the months that followed the first season finale have me feeling a bit nervous about the direction the show is going to go in. If this news is true and Darabont is gone, I hope someone just as capable steps up to fill his shoes.

The Walking Dead returns for Season 2 on October 16th at 9:00 p.m. ET on AMC.

Watch the Season 2 trailer here..

And now from the "Most Likely to Piss Off Loyal Fans" department: today Anchor Bay Entertainment has announced a new special edition of The Walking Dead: Season 1, which will include tons of new bonus features, including audio commentaries on all six episodes. Sounds great, right? Well, not if you're one of the folks (hi!) who already paid to buy the season one set last March, which includes a fraction of these features.

Sure, double-dipping is hardly a new phenomenon in the DVD world, but tossing out a feature-filled special edition a little over six months after the initial release? As a friend put it, "kind of a dick move." The new edition is slated for October 4th, timed to hit shelves leading up to The Walking Dead's return to AMC for season 2, so I can understand why they'd want to target that period. But I would have rather they just held back on the release entirely until the nice version was ready.

The new Walking Dead: Season 1 Special Edition will be available in three varieties: a special edition DVD ($49.98), a special edition Blu-ray ($59.99), and a limited edition Blu-ray collector's tin ($89.99). The former two versions will net you all the new bonus features, but the collector's tin will also include a wearable zombie mask designed by Greg Nicotero, the show's make-up artist.

What do you think? Will you pay to upgrade to the new version, or are you just ticked off they didn't include the good stuff the first time around? Sound off in the comments below or over on our Facebook page.

Walking Dead Season 1 Special Edition Bonus Features

All three versions include the following NEW extras:

• Pilot Episode: The B&W Version
• Audio Commentaries On All 6 episodes
• We Are the Walking Dead
• Bring Out the Dead: KNB and the Art of Making Zombies
• Digital Decay: The VFX of The Walking Dead
• No More Room in Hell: The Walking Dead Phenomenon
• Adapting the Dead
• Killer Conversations: Frank Darabont & Greg Nicotero

Each version includes bonus features from the previous release of The Walking Dead: Season 1 on DVD that contained the following:

• The Making of The Walking Dead
• Inside The Walking Dead: Episodes 1 - 6
• A Sneak Peek with Robert Kirkman
• Behind the Scenes Zombie Make-Up Tips
• Convention Panel with the Producers
• The Walking Dead Trailer

Extra Footage includes:

• Zombie School
• Bicycle Girl
• On Set with Robert Kirkman
• Hanging with Steven Yeun
• Inside Dale's RV
• On Set with Andrew Lincoln

Everyone is pretty excited for the return of AMC's The Walking Dead. It's one of the few new series last season that really captured audiences and instantly converted them into mindless, uh, zombies, obediently tuning in each week to see what blood, guts, and gore-thirsty creatures Sheriff Rick Grimes and the rest of the survivors had to deal with, or decapitate and disembowel, this time.

My favorite part of the series, being the huge dork that I am, is the monster makeup. The production value and expertise thrown behind the zombie design was phenomenal; no surprise when you hire a legend like Greg Nicotero to take care of it for you. Nicotero has worked with some of the biggest names in film (Tarantino, Raimi, Rodriguez) and his TV resume ain't too shabby either (Deadwood, Masters of Horror, The Pacific).

His work on The Walking Dead so far is nothing short of magical...and with a bigger season and bigger budget, I can only imagine what he might have in store for us. This new featurette focuses on Nicotero as he discusses the story behind the amazing first image that they released for Season 2. As he says, he fell in love with an extra's eyes and felt she would make the perfect zombie, and you can't really argue with the result.

But never mind me, watch Nicotero tell you about his work in his own words.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC for Season 2 this October. It stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale), and Laurie Holden (Andrea). Based on the graphic novel by Robert Kirkman, Frank Darabont serves as exec-producer, writer, and director for the TV adaptation.

Don't worry. Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead will be back looking for your brains before you know it. That's right, AMC's horror hit from last year has begun filming its follow-up season, and this time they've got a full 13-episode order to fill with your favorite flesh-eaters.

Last week, AMC kicked off the promotional efforts for the second season by sharing a shot of some newly minted zombies, and, as always, the make-up and effects looked impeccable (kudos to the master, Greg Nicotero). Shooting just resumed in Atlanta (or Hotlanta by the looks of it), and to tide you over until Rick Grimes and the gang return, the studio invites you behind the scenes on the first day.

The Walking Dead is scheduled to return sometime this fall. Halloween, probably? Keep up with the latest news and videos on the official AMC Walking Dead blog. Oh, and can someone tell Frank Darabont that there are shirts that are NOT Hawaiian?

The promotional effort has already been resurrected for the critically acclaimed series about the undead with this first look photo from Season Two of The Walking Dead. The series was such an initial success that the order for another round came very quickly.

Here's the first ever Season 2 image. Click to see it in high-res.

Almost as quickly as the show was renewed, producer Frank Darabont fired his entire writing staff and started fresh. A bold but possibly necessary move. If you're the head writer unhappy with the scripts from your staff (Darabont ended up doing many re-writes himself) what other choice do you have? Suffer through a second and longer season? Not Frank. He nipped the problem in the bud and decided the best thing for the show was a change. Let's hope he's right.

One thing the series never had a problem with was zombie design and make-up. They seem to choose the right extras to maximize grotesque possibilities (sorry extras, I don't mean to call you grotesque). And, much to my delight, that trend seems to be continuing in the second season, as this first official image ignores the breathing cast of characters and instead goes all out undead. I love the attention to detail... how would you like to be staring into those eyes in a darkened alley (or a lightened one at that)? Hey zombie! Smile, you're on candid camera.

Season Two of The Walking Dead (a full 13 episodes) will premiere some time this fall and if I was a betting man, I'd put my cash on October 31.

If there's any one thing generally associated with Frank Darabont, it's deliberate storytelling, generally on the slow burner side. It's hard to tell how well this will pay off in zombie television. While character development is certainly beyond important, The Walking Dead is having trouble shaping up in other areas. It's barely reaching that third dimension that takes it off the comic page. Mind you, it's still more interesting than Sunday night's other offerings, but that's not a proper way to judge things.

In tonight's opening, Merle Dixon, still handcuffed to a pipe on a department store roof, is talking to himself and sounding nuttier and more redneck than usual. The drama reaches maximum levels when a group of zombies break the access door open, though it's still chained on the inside. This causes Merle to wiggle around wildly, trying all he can do to wrangle a hacksaw using a belt buckle and a shirt.

Back at the camp, Shane and Carl continue to bond, setting up a world of discomfort when Glenn rolls into town, followed by Rick and the rest of the crew. Rick and Lori have an emotional reunion as Shane smiles uncomfortably on the sideline. They later kiss and make-up in the tent, and Lori apologizes for everything, guising it as sympathy for his being left behind, and not her infidelity.

The episode's lone example of zombie annihilation disrupts an otherwise pleasant morning. A roamer is found munching on an arrow-ridden deer, so the gang spends thirty seconds walloping the shit out of it before old guy Dale (Jeffrey DuMunn) takes his head off. So who shot the deer? Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), Merle's similarly simple-minded brother. This is actually a role that fits Reedus perfectly, which sounds funny when said aloud. The group is forced to admit to leaving Merle handcuffed on the roof, which does not make Daryl a happy camper. So against Lori, Carl, and Shane's better wishes, Rick, T-Dog, Daryl, and Glenn take a trip back to the department store to rescue Merle. As an added (and more reasonable) goal, they're to retrieve the duffel bag full of guns that Rick dropped on the street when he was fleeing the city. In this respect, the plot mirrors the last episode.

Throughout the episode, resident dickhead Ed (Adam Minarovich) makes a misogynist spectacle of himself. It starts when he ignores Shane's instructions to keep the fires low as not to attract the walkers, and in the way he talks to his wife after Shane gets his way. After the man-group leaves for Merle, Shane and Carl have a fun time trying to catch frogs in the river, infuriating Lori, who wants nothing to do with Shane now that Rick is back.

Meanwhile, Andrea, Amy, Jacqui and Carol (Melissa Suzanne McBride) watch Shane and Carl playing, bemoaning the fact that the jobs of washing were left to them, the women. Bonding over memories of lost things such as washing machines and vibrators, the girls enjoy the first fits of laughter afforded to this show's characters. If you can imagine, this is against everything Ed thinks is allowable, causing him to stick his naysaying nose where it doesn't belong, demanding the women stop laughing. He then tries to take Carol, his wife, away from them. Andrea shares a few frank opinions with Ed, and the two use Carol in a tug of war match before Ed strikes Carol in the face. This prompts Shane to take out all of his Lori-fueled rage out on Ed's face, punching him a dozen or so times in the temple. Note that for a gory show, the small amount of blood smeared on Ed's face is hardly enough to match the pulp his skull would be had he gotten hit that many times.

It seems that estranged living is taking its toll on everyone, most certainly those with testosterone flowing through their bloodstream. And the episode ends with the most aggro of them all, or at least part of him. As Rick and the boys eventually make it to the rooftop, they find that Merle has escaped, but not before leaving behind a token of his unappreciation: his sawed-off hand! Dum dum dummmm. Where'd Merle go? Is he going to be vengeful for being left up there to die? Will the group be able to "hand"le what Merle may have in store? Probably, as this would be a short-lived series if not.

I didn't inject a whole lot of opinion into this because one wasn't drawn out of me. Of course, Ed's relentless degradation of women was offensive, but it was handled only a shade less awkwardly than Merle's racist remarks last week. I'm pleased that Shane is a more sympathetic character than he was in the comics. Dale's insistence on haggling over bolt cutters was a nice and amusing character point. That's the heads and tails of it. I can't complain about the things that are there, just about the things that aren't, and I won't bore you with that.

In the past we've reported on AMC's The Walking Dead as if it were a giant tentpole summer movie, because well, it may as well be. It's got a big-name director (Frank Darabont), origins in a comic book series (of the same title, by Robert Kirkman), and as we know now, a spectacular production team. On their website AMC has released a photo gallery of some of the creepy dead from the show, and man oh man, you never expected zombies to look so terrifying on basic cable.

The show follows a police officer named Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln) who is shepherding a group of survivors to safety after a zombie apocalypse. While I'm sure we'll come to love the human characters in time, the flesh eaters are the ones we want to see now, and the images do not disappoint. Check out four of the images below and find four more in the blog slideshow. Then try getting that bloody-necked woman out of your head.

Zombies have been all the rage on the big screen for a decade or so now, but so far the ranks of the shambling undead haven’t found equal time on television. Looks like that’s about to change in a big way, because Variety reports that Frank Darabont is in talks to write and direct a series adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comics for AMC.

This is great news for fans of the excellent comics, not only because of the involvement of talented power players like Darabont and producer Gale Anne Hurd, but because an ongoing TV series probably has a better shot at doing the comics justice. The Walking Dead focuses on a rotating group of survivors fighting to stay alive in a zombie-infested world. As a movie, Walking Dead might struggle to differentiate itself from every other zombie movie, especially amongst moviegoers who don’t know anything about the comics. On the TV landscape, however, Walking Dead can stake out territory all its own, and the extended format of a TV series will allow Darabont and any other series writers to examine the hopelessness of day-to-day survival in a world overrun with brain-eating undead assholes.

This is now my single most anticipated TV project, right next the A Game of Thrones series HBO is developing.

The Mist comes out on DVD tomorrow and I couldn’t be more excited. I was really looking forward to seeing Frank Darabont’s adaptation of the Stephen King story and missed it in theaters (damn busy schedule), so I’ve been anxiously awaiting the DVD.

It turns out there’s more than one reason to pick up the DVD, even if you saw the movie in theaters. The two-disc edition of The Mist includes a black and white version of the movie. Now, most of you probably wonder why anyone would want to transform a modern picture that was released in color as a black and white movie. It turns out that Darabont had always envisioned The Mist as a black and white picture. Making that argument with a studio would be difficult, however, so he released the movie as it was seen in theaters. Thanks to the magic of DVD, Darabont can put out the version of the movie he wanted to, so the two disc edition includes the version seen in theaters and a black and white print of the movie, which Darabont considers to be closer to the director’s edition or director’s initial vision.

Here’s the introduction to the black and white version that will be on the DVD, where Darabont explains the rationale behind a non-color print: