Since directing the 1999 film "The Green Mile," Frank Darabont has become
associated
with films that deal with humanity and redemption, not to mention being the
perennial
subject of Oscar buzz.
"I read the script and it just rang this bell with me," he says about his
latest, "The
Majestic," a tale of mistaken identity that deals with the Hollywood
blacklist starring Jim
Carrey. "It spoke to my love of Frank Capra movies. It was the love letter
to Frank
Capra that I've always wanted to write. Capra was a huge influence on me as
a
filmmaker. 'It's a Wonderful Life' is my all-time favorite movie."
The film was shot in a small California town called Ferndale near the Oregon
border
amid "radically changeable" weather conditions, says the director.
"Filming the scene in which Jim Carrey's car plunges off a bridge was
challenging," he
says. "I'd never flirted with physical effects before to that degree. We
built a part of
the bridge up at Falls Lake at Universal Studios at a tank. We digitally
filled in the
landscape and extended the bridge and added the water.
"It's really amazing how physical and digital effects can be so challenging.
I don't know
how Steven Spielberg does it with all the dinosaurs."
As for how the movie reflects his ethos as a filmmaker, Darabont says he
tends "to like
stories where you're kind of drawn into a world and really get to know the
characters.
I'm not cutting edge, I'm kind of a throwback, those are the kind of movies
I love the
most. Like Mr. Capra, I do tend to wear my heart on my sleeve a bit.
Audiences tend to
like it and critics tend to hate it. It's not for me to judge. Time and the
audience will
really judge what we do."— Sharon Knolle
