The man has his roots in horror and he came back to another one of his roots, the city where he lived as a child, Chicago, to speak about his latest project and the many challenges he faced while making it.

THE DEADBOLT: The production notes for The Mist quote you as saying about the film, "I've been a little pissed off at mankind lately, and it shows." So, what about mankind has pissed you off?

FRANK DARABONT: The twenty-first century has just sucked so far. Everybody's kind of gone nuts, apparently. Starting off the century with lunatics slamming planes into buildings was not a great way to begin a new century. And things don't seem to be proceeding in a positive direction because everyone's so winged out by fear and panic, which, not to do a grateful segue into The Mist, kind of ties into what that story's saying.

THE DEADBOLT: Isn't it interesting that a 27-year-old story speaks to what you're feeling about mankind today?

FRANK: It is. What it really speaks to is the fact that Stephen King is such a muscular writer and his stories tend to be of the human condition. They tend to be timeless. Some of the themes in this go back to Greek tragedy. William Golding wrote a fantastic book about this called The Lord of the Flies. [Rod] Serling talked about it with "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" on The Twilight Zone. It's somewhat in that vein. What's sad is that the timeless thing becomes more relevant than ever now. One would hope that people would get a little wiser, but I'm feeling less sanguine. I'm not so optimistic as the guy who made The Shawshank Redemption. My sunny side may come out later. I may insist on getting back to the positive. But not now. Inside me there's an optimist screaming to get out. That's always been the case.

THE DEADBOLT: You were considering making this more than 20 years ago.

FRANK: It was something I read in 1980 when it was first published. I didn't even have a film career at that point but I remember reading it and thinking "Boy, I'd love to make this movie someday."

THE DEADBOLT: And you almost made it instead of Shawshank, as your first film?

FRANK: Well, it wasn't probably that near a thing, but I remember being on the set of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, which was my first credit as a writer. There was the scene in the junkyard and we were on the set one night thinking "Wow, my writing career seems to have gone into gear. I should start thinking about something to direct." I had made a short film based on Steve's work in my early 20s. And I thought "Hmmm. Maybe I'll go back to Stephen King. He's got these other stories I love." I was sort of weighing whether I'd be asking for the rights to The Mist or to Shawshank. I wound up going with Shawshank. I figured if I had one shot to do something of Stephen King's, I'd want it to be Shawshank because I love that story so much.

THE DEADBOLT: Maybe this is hard to answer, but how would The Mist be different if you had gone the other way and made that first instead?

FRANK: I don't know, man. Let me put it this way - I think it would have been a much greater challenge, especially because of the effects work required. Just from the standpoint of being largely a one-set movie, it would have been a pretty good and focused choice for a first feature, but in terms of the effects, I'm glad we have the technology we have today when you can kind of mix the old-school stuff with the new-school stuff. The creatures had to be versatile beyond what puppetry can offer. I'm very lucky because I got Greg Nicotero involved to spearhead the creature design.

THE DEADBOLT: The film pretty much only takes place in one setting. Was that a challenging element and can you speak a little bit about the design of the store? It's almost like a play.

FRANK: Which makes it a smart choice for a low budget film, of course. Given how fast we had to shoot the movie - 37 days, six and a half weeks we shot this thing.

Frank Darabont Interview Page 2