Back in 2021, Frank Darabont hinted that he had retired from filmmaking. Well, it looks like he’s just unretired.
Darabont is confirmed to have directed two episodes for the final season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things”. There are supposed to be eight total episodes, and Darabont is helming episodes 3 & 5 (via The InSneider). Sneider adds that show creators The Duffers seem to have thrown Darabont a “lifeline” to make a comeback.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Darabont, he’s only directed four films in his career, including “The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Green Mile,” and “The Mist.” He hasn’t helmed a feature since 2007 — the reasons why vary, many are just theories, and I won’t get into all of them here.
Actor Thomas Jane (The Punisher), who worked with Darabont on “The Mist,” had mentioned, on the Kingcast podcast, that the filmmaker had effectively been blacklisted in Hollywood for suing AMC over the “Walking Dead”. Long story short, Darabont got screwed over by AMC with his show and ended up filing some fairly heavy-duty lawsuits against them. Seems Darabont might have been in the right — he ended up winning the case and pocketing close to $200 million.
Ever since his 2011 ‘Walking Dead’ exit, Darabont has done some uncredited, and fairly hush-hush, work as a script doctor on Hollywood blockbusters. He also created the 2013 TNT series “Mob City,” which lasted just six episodes. Now, it sounds like he’s attempting a semi-comeback as the ultra-popular “Stranger Things” could be the the perfect vehicle for his resurgence in the industry.
Darabont was actually slated to direct the 2009 film “Law Abiding Citizen,” and 2014’s “The Huntsman: Winter's War,” but left both productions due to “creative differences”. More intriguingly, he also wrote a script for a film centered around the American Civil War, based on an unproduced screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and historian Shelby Foote. Darabont has said it’s the best thing he’s ever written, but that no studio wanted to fund it.
Darabont has not been shy in stating that he has a few projects he’d like to have greenlit, but that there’s been a lack of interest from producers and studios to finance these scripts. Maybe the door can finally re-open and some of these projects can now come to fruition.