Frank Darabont

His parents had fled Hungary for France after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, bringing his five brothers and four sisters, and three cousins.

When Darabont was still an infant, his family immigrated to the United States, settling in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles when Darabont was five.

Darabont was inspired in his youth to pursue a career in film after seeing the George Lucas film THX 1138.

Frank Árpád Darabont (born Ferenc Árpád Darabont, January 28, 1959) is an American screenwriter, director and producer.

He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.

Darabont was born in a refugee camp in 1959 in Montbéliard, France.

Darabont graduated from Hollywood High School in 1977 and did not attend college.

His first job after finishing school was working at the famed Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

He served at the concession stand and as an usher, and was grateful for the perk of getting to watch numerous films for free.

He claims he developed his writing skills from "endless hours" of writing at a desk on a typewriter in his free time, and from his childhood friend Cody Hills.

Darabont became involved in filmmaking by becoming a production assistant on such films as Hell Night, The Seduction, and Trancers.

The first film he wrote and directed was a short work adapted from Stephen King's story "The Woman in the Room".

This film was one of the first "Dollar Babies" and made the semi-finalist list for Academy Award consideration in 1983.

Although Darabont was not happy with how the short turned out, this effort resulted in a close association with King, who granted him the "handshake deal" rights to another of his shorter works, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption from the collection Different Seasons.

Darabont sold his first screenplay titled Black Cat Run in 1986, but it was not produced for more than a decade, as a television film under the same name.

Darabont was approached by Chuck Russell (who was a producer on Hell Night and The Seduction) with an offer to become his writing partner, as he had become interested in Darabont's writing after reading his spec script written for the television series M*A*S*H.

The two began working on a script for a remake of the film The Blob, which they had planned to shop around to studios.

That was interrupted when they were both hired to rewrite the script of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, with Russell directing the film.

The two were given only two weeks to rewrite the script and accomplished it in ten days.

The success of their A Nightmare on Elm Street film allowed them to produce the first script they had originally written, The Blob.

By then considered a successful writer for hire, Darabont was commissioned to write The Fly II, an early draft of The Rocketeer, and an unproduced sequel to Commando.

In his early career, he was primarily a screenwriter for such horror films as A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), The Blob (1988) and The Fly II (1989).

Darabont made his directorial debut with Buried Alive, a television movie with a $2,000,000 budget that aired on the USA Network in 1990.

He followed this with an extended run as a writer for George Lucas's television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

He also wrote two episodes of the television series Tales from the Crypt.

Darabont made good on the deal with Stephen King by writing and directing the film adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption.

Rob Reiner, who had previously adapted another King novella, The Body, into the movie Stand by Me, offered Darabont $2.5 million in an attempt to write and direct Shawshank.

He planned to cast Tom Cruise in the part of Andy and Harrison Ford as Red.

Darabont seriously considered and liked Reiner's vision, but he ultimately decided it was his "chance to do something really great" by directing the film himself.

Although the film did not fare well at the box office, it was met with acclaim by audiences and critics.

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for Darabont.

As a director, he is known for his film adaptations of Stephen King novellas and novels, such as The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Green Mile (1999), and The Mist (2007).

Hanks and Darabont first met at an Academy Award luncheon in 1994, and the two were eager to work on a project together.

Stephen King said he had envisioned Hanks in the role and was happy when Darabont mentioned his name.

The film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture, and Darabont was nominated for his second Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The film attracted additional viewers after its Academy Award nominations, and became the most rented film of 1995.

Today it is considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made.

Darabont's next directorial effort was another Stephen King adaptation for which he wrote the screenplay, The Green Mile, starring Tom Hanks.

At first Darabont was reluctant to adapt the novel as a film, as its setting was too similar to Shawshank, but quickly changed his mind after reading the novel.

Darabont also developed and executive-produced the first season and first half of the second season of the AMC horror series The Walking Dead (2010–2011).