Frank Darabont Says He Confronted Lucas Over His 'Indy 4' Script

In a new interview at MTV.com, Frank Darabont talks The Mist, future projects, and the "tremendous disappointment" of having his Indiana Jones 4 script rejected by George Lucas. Darabont has directed what I would consider to be one classic movie (The Shawshank Redemption), one very good movie (The Green Mile) and one well-intentioned, but pretty weak movie (The Majestic). I'm hoping getting back to the Stephen King adaptations with The Mist puts him right back on the exceptional path he started on years ago. Darabont is using the guys who did the CGI work in Pan's Labyrinth for the monsters in The Mist, and he thinks the film is "too intense" for anything but an "R" rating. He claims to have been influenced by the style of 28 Days Later, but don't expect to find anything as graphic as scenes found in Saw or Hostel. Darabont says: "The torture-porn thing is pretty distasteful. I'm just not into it. Horror unfortunately tends to go in these cycles where it puts itself back in this ghetto. I just don't find anything amusing about people getting tortured. I wish we weren't making these movies. I think it degrades the culture. I think it diminishes the human spirit."

Darabont also discusses his experience as a writer-for-hire on Indiana Jones 4, calling it "a waste of a year." He says it "showed me how badly things can go. I spent a year of very determined effort on something I was very excited about, working very closely with Steven Spielberg and coming up with a result that I and he felt was terrific. He wanted to direct it as his next movie, and then suddenly the whole thing goes down in flames because George Lucas doesn't like the script." Darabont is a pretty powerful guy in his own right, and says he had no problem accosting Lucas about the matter. "I told him he was crazy. I said, "You have a fantastic script. I think you're insane, George." You can say things like that to George, and he doesn't even blink. He's one of the most stubborn men I know." Darabont doesn't know if any of his original work will make it into the film, but might his Indy script ever be seen by all the interested fans? Says Darabont: "I would love it, but it's not my material to disseminate. At this point, I don't give much of a damn what George thinks, but I wouldn't want to harm my friendship with Steven."

Darabont is hoping his next movie will be an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic Fahrenheit 451. The Mist finished shooting last week, and is expected to be in theaters this November.