Earlier in the summer, I had mentioned Frank Darabont was a director who had gone quiet for over a decade now. Last year, he hinted that he had retired from directing.
That will soon change as Darabont is in talks to direct two episodes for the final season of Netflix series “Stranger Things”. There are supposed to be eight total episodes in Season 5 with production set to begin in January (via The InSneider).
In case you’re not familiar with Darabont, he’s directed just four movies in his career, including “The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Green Mile,” and “The Mist.” He hasn’t helmed a feature since 2007.
Since exiting “The Walking Dead” in 2011, Darabont has done some uncredited 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 back in a big way, and, as Sneider says, “Stranger Things” could be the the perfect vehicle for his comeback.
Darabont admitted in a recent interview that he has a few projects he’d like to have come into fruition, but that there’s been a lack of interest from producers and studios to finance his scripts. Darabont currently holds the rights to two Stephen King stories, “The Long Walk” and “The Monkey”, neither of which he‘a adapted.
Darabont was 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” with the producers. More intriguingly, he wrote a script for a film centred 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 — his frustration led to him hinting at retirement in 2021.
Here’s hoping Darabont can get something going soon, the man is only 64 years old, and he still has many years of creativity left in him.