Frank Darabont was supposed to direct the 2000s crime thriller

Frank Darabont is credited with directing Three of the best Stephen King adaptationsbut between 1994’s “The Shawshank Redemption” and 2007’s “The Mist,” the pulp maestro rarely had this going.

If you’re wondering what could be so bad about making a movie that consistently holds the top spot on IMDb’s rankings of the greatest movies of all time, then remember that “The Shawshank Redemption” was not a huge success when it was released in theaters in the late summer of 1994. Based on a novella from King’s popular “Different Seasons” collection, the film could not be sold as a “King of Horror” story, nor could it rely on star power due to That Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman were usually seen as mass actors. The reviews will be the main selling point and, well, the critics didn’t initially provide a chorus of rave reviews.

Things didn’t really change for “The Shawshank Redemption” until it received seven Academy Award nominations, but that wasn’t enough to give it a boost at the box office. Eventually, it earned its status as a crybaby classic over time thanks to home video and many years of cable reruns. So, by the time Darabont was ready to unleash King’s second installment with The Green Mile, he had almost made a brand name for himself.

However, 25 years later, “The Green Mile” remains Darabont’s highest-grossing film by a significant amount. His subsequent films, “The Majestic” and “The Mist,” fared well below commercial expectations in 2001 and 2007 respectively, putting him back at zero as a filmmaker. He needed a hit. Fortunately, one of these scenarios was embodied in a raucous screenplay by a famous writer of the time. Darabont signed, and all signs pointed to a course correction. Then it all collapsed.

In 2008, Kurt Wimmer’s thrilling screenplay for “Law Abiding Citizen” It was generating interest throughout the city. A revenge thriller about a man desperate for blood after his family’s killer is quickly allowed to walk free, and revolves around two wanted stars, Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. It started to look like an event film when Darabont came on board to direct it.

So why did F. Gary Gray end up scoring $127 million worldwide instead of Darabont?

The official story is that frightening creative differences prompted Darabont to exit the project, Which he confirmed at the time with “Isn’t It Great News”.. But it was more than just differences. It was an all-out conflict that ended acrimoniously. Although I was writing for AICN at the time and had an open channel for dialogue with Darabont, I still did not know what specifically happened (and considered it none of my business since I did not cover the film explicitly for the site). If I were to speculate, I would say that a writer of Darabont’s caliber would likely have considered a rewrite, and that didn’t sit well with the producers, who liked the script as it was. It’s a shame it didn’t work out because while I enjoy Gray as a bad, dirty vigilante movie, “Death Wish” could have been a much sharper, weirder movie in the right hands.

Now for the heartbreaking thing: Darabont hasn’t directed a film since The Mist, and has shown no interest in returning to films for the past 16 years. We miss you, Frank. (However, the director has come out of retirement to direct two episodes of the upcoming final season of Stranger Things, so at least we have something to look forward to.)