“The Shawshank Redemption” was released in 1994 to good but not great reviews — however, over the last two decades, the Frank Darabont-directed movie has aged like fine wine. Not only is it now one of the most heralded movies in history, having topped the IMDb’s list of highest-rated films for more than a decade now, but it is also a selection in the Library of Congress. That’s how important ‘Shawshank’ is.
Darabont’s track record since then has been sparse but genuinely impressive. He followed ‘Shawshank’ with “The Green Mile,” which, judging by its IMDB rating of 8.6, has been wholly embraced as a classic by this generation. However, he hasn’t released a movie since 2007’s “The Mist.” But It’s not like he’s been inactive, he is credited as the creator of “The Walking Dead,” even though the series was taken away from him after its original season had aired (lawsuits between the director and AMC are still ongoing).
Darabont admitted in a recent interview that he has a few projects he’d like to have come into fruition, but that there is a lack of interest from producers and studios to finance these scripts. I hope he can get something going soon, the man is only 60 years of age, he still has a lot of creative juice left in him.