The Mist

Genre: Horror.

Studio: Unknown.
Production Company: Unknown.

Project Phase: Development Hell.

Who's In It: Unknown.
Who's Making It: Frank Darabont (Director); based upon the Stephen King novella The Mist from the anthology Skeleton Crew.

Premise: The day after a peculiar storm, a strange mist settles upon a small Maine town. Inside the mist are horrifying creatures which prey upon any living creature they encounter travelling through the mist. The story centers upon the people trapped in a supermarket, watching the events unfold as new, larger and more deadlier creatures begin to manifest themselves outside, trying to get inside. Tensions run high as escape plans are devised, people ponder the fates of their loved ones back at their homes, and mysterious theories are revealed that may answer where these horrors in the mist came from.

Release Date: Unknown.

Comments: Steve King's hundred-and-few-odd page novella The Mist is one of his better works to have materialized during the Eighties (in my own humble opinion, of course). King plays with the haunted setting and atmosphere; with the bickering factions debating upon how to best deal with their situation inside the supermarket, the sense of a 'doomsday'-like event that is unfolding around them, or with images of the nightmarish creatures, both glimpsed for a fleeting moment through a break in the mist or the eerie, macabre sounds they make brushing against the sides of the building. It's a lot like H.P. Lovecraft meets George Romero's Night of the Living Dead - truly, an ideal date movie.

And you can't hope to have someone better than Frank Darabont helming the project. Darabont's other King adaptation was The Shawshank Redemption (from Rita Hayworth & the Shawshank Redemption novella that appeared in Different Seasons). If the critical praise that movie was given doesn't give you a comforting sensation, try to remember it also was up for a good number of Oscars - if that still doesn't convince you, rent the bloody thing. And if that still doesn't convince you he's the best man for the job, keep in mind this fellow is the only confirmed name that's been approached by George Lucas to write one of the screenplays for the upcoming new trilogy of Star Wars movies. And, on top of that, he also writes some nifty columns for Fangoria magazine too (subbing for regular columnist David J. Schow). As to when he's going to get time to work on further developing this project...

So Frank, if yer out there baby, I trust ya. But make sure you get Stan Winston involved with the creature FX, ok?

Rumors: Unknown.

Scoop Feedback:

October 6, 1996... Darabont's work on The Mist script is reported to be finished but the project is on hold until his 'assignments' for George Lucas' new Star Wars trilogy is completed. The writer-director did mention in October 1995 that he wanted to cast the 'molasses'-voiced actor from The Shawshank Redemption in The Mist - they're apparently good friends. [Scoop reported by Brent Lynch.]

February 16, 1997... Cccording to Bill Warren, friend of Frank Darabont, as of Sunday February 9th, Darabont had not yet finished a draft for this project. [Scoop sent in by Brent Lynch.]

Acknowledgments:

Thanks go out to Jeremy J. Ritter for updating our knowledge on Darabont's Fangoria work. Just don't let your Mother know about your subscription to the magazine.



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