http://chud.com/nextraimages/mist_ltd1.jpgFrank Darabont, you sneaky man.

A few months ago I asked the man point blank about his long-awaited adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist and he indicated that it was sort of in limbo. It’s been one of those things I think we’ve been discussing since this site came into being in the late 90’s, a project everyone expected but few really thought would happen. Now, according to Variety it is, and it even has CHUD friend Thomas Jane in talks to co-star.

That’s friggin’ progress. From the article:

Dimension Films will turn Stephen King novella "The Mist" into a horror
film, which Frank Darabont will direct from his own script.

Thomas Jane is in talks to be part of the ensemble cast.

Darabont,
whose biggest hits were the King adaptations "The Shawshank Redemption"
and "The Green Mile," has long been enshrouded in "The Mist."

King
entrusted the rights to him several years ago, when Darabont had a
first-look deal at Paramount. Darabont is in the final stages of
reclaiming rights to his script.

"It’s a project Stephen King and
I have been talking about doing for almost 20 years now," Darabont
said. "In fact, it almost was my first directing project many years
ago, but I went classy and did "The Shawshank Redemption" instead.
It’s time to get down and dirty and make a nasty little
character-driven gut-punch horror movie."

It’s hard not to be jazzed about this, and not just because The Shawshank Redemption is one of the best films I’ve ever seen (despite what Devin says). It’s got a little Lovecraft in it, it’s very tight and focused in its horror approach, and anything Frank’s willing to fight for over the course of a decade has to be worth it.