The Stephen King adaptation inspired by Danny Boyle
Few writers have had their work adapted for the screen as much as Stephen King, who has become a master of the horror and thriller genre due to his prolific output. With every new novel or short story he writes, producers across Hollywood are instantly interested – after all, many movies based on his stories have become international cinematic sensations.
From The Shining and Stand By Me to The Shawshank Redemption, It, and The Green Mile, the amount of success King has enjoyed is truly impressive. It seems like it is often the case that the right hands get hold of King’s work, doing his spooky stories justice on the big screen.
Frank Darabont is well known for directing The Shawshank Redemption, which was based on King’s 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The movie is well-loved, although it sadly did not win any of the categories it was nominated in at the Oscars. Still, it’s a ‘90s classic and proof that King can write incredible stories that aren’t strictly concerned with the horror genre.
That wasn’t the only time Darabont adapted some of King’s work for the silver screen, though. When he was in his early 20s, Darabont made the short film The Woman In The Room based on King’s short story of the same name. Then, in 2007, Darabont made The Mist, which was adapted from King’s novella of the same name.
It performed well, although The Mist is hardly remembered in the same vein as The Shawshank Redemption. The movie featured a large cast, including Marcia Gay Harden, Melissa McBride, Toby Jones, and Thomas Jane, and centred around a group of people who end up trapped in a supermarket when a strange mist appears outside. The movie explores the unknown, as well as how fear can take shape.
Darabont ended up finding inspiration from a low-budget British horror film – Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later. Released in 2002, the movie, starring Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris, was unique due to the fact that many scenes were shot on a handheld video camera.
This worked in favour of the film’s apocalyptic setting. Darabont was hugely inspired and decided to use handheld cameras for The Mist. “I gotta say, kudos to Danny Boyle, he inspired me. I saw 28 Days Later and thought, ‘Oh my God, this is great!’” he revealed to Empire. “And it was done on a budget of peanuts and crackers. And yet, rough edges and all, it’s a masterful film. I thought, ‘Why not? Why not go and make the movie you set out to make, even if you have to shoot it really fast?’”
Thus, Darabont kept 28 Days Later in mind and made The Mist, which grossed $57million against a budget of $18m. He claimed that this helped to free him from the pressures of perfectionism, adding, ”And I had a wonderful experience last year directing an episode of The Shield for Shawn Ryan. The camerawork is all improvised and it’s completely documentary style: fast, fast, fast. And so I totally got into the spirit of that and I found it exceptionally liberating. The pretensions of Kubrick went by the wayside.”
