Frank Darabont

A January 28, 1959 served as the date for the birth of Frank Darabont. The Hungarian Revolution forced his parents to emigrate to Montbéliard (France), the place where little Frank would end up being born. A few months later, his family went to live in Los Angeles, in the United States, and well-being came into his life.

As soon as he finished high school, it was clear to him that he wanted to be a screenwriter and make movies, but he had no idea how to do it. In 1980, Darabont bravely decided to write a letter to Stephen King asking if he could adapt The Woman in the Room into a short film. And while working as a production assistant on the horror film Hellish Night (1981), he got King’s approval and enough savings to carry out his desired short film in 1983.

In 1987 the ban was opened for his participation as a screenwriter in several horror films of a certain packaging, such as A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 , directed by Chuck Russell , Terror has no form (1988) or The fly II (1989). Little by little he progressed, until in 1990 he shot his first TV movie, called Buried Alive . This was his first project for his television, but it would be years before he decided to establish himself in that medium.

Stephen King had liked it, and to the surprise of his own and strangers, he also gave him the rights to his amazing prison story “The Shawshank Redemption.” Darabont was in charge of not only adapting it, but also directing The Shawshank Redemption until it became the brilliant film that it is. Seven Oscar nominations in 1994 endorsed him, but that year Hurricane Forrest Gump swept away all the awards, and Darabont’s work left empty.

His next rung on the ladder was in 1999. This time he directed The Green Mile , another Stephen King adaptation that dealt with the issue of the death penalty. More Oscar nominations, with the same record as The Chain of Life . With The Majestic (2001), success and criticism lowered his rating, but that did not mean any setbacks in his career. A break of almost six years led him to become executive producer, with Collateral (2004), to later return to his terrifying fate, thanks to the direction of The Fog (2007), also based on King.

His introduction into the television universe came from afar, with forays into fantastic and horror-themed series. The true high-level of his on the small screen has come from the post-apocalyptic The Walking Dead (2010), where he has written most of the episodes of the first two seasons. Disagreements with the AMC chain made him leave the nest that had provided him with legions of ‘zombie fans’. His continuity on television is fully guaranteed, with his new series LA Noir , which deals with the fights between the police and gangsters. How long it lasts is another story.

“Fahrenheit 451”, a dream in the future, and at the same time an insurmountable fence. Darabont has always tried to bring Ray Bradbury ‘s mythical novel to the cinema , but his attempts have so far been in vain. He does not give up on his efforts and continues to insist on putting forward an adapted version that he himself has written. “I will die trying not to make this film,” he said three years ago in an interview. Quite a declaration of intent from a maverick who has managed to transform his ramblings into true stories that have always had something important to tell.