When asked whether the movie landscape was completely hopeless, Darabont did at least have some movies he enjoyed recently that he could point to. “I do see some personal soul-making still happening. ‘Hateful Eight’ is a great example,” he explained. Another film shoutout of his was more surprising: “I love ‘Doctor Strange.’ I’m not necessarily a superhero kind of moviegoer, but there are some examples. Benedict Cumberbatch (the lead) is like my favorite actor these days, I just adore him. That was done very, very well, and I really enjoyed it.”
And if Darabont’s looking for a replacement to Castle Rock, the hands-off studio that gave him so much freedom in his early career, there are still some similar studios today. The most notable one is A24, which has really made a name for itself in recent years for producing a bunch of weird, unique, varied films like “Midsommar,” “Uncut Gems,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and “Lamb.” They don’t always do a great promoting their movies — it was a running gag on film Twitter for awhile that they only seemed to use one image from “The Whale” over and over again — but the creatives behind the films always seem to have a lot of freedom.
So although it feels like things have gotten worse over the years, Frank Darabont still has a hope for movies, and so should you. As he himself will tell you, great movies haven’t gone extinct. “I see a guy like Danny Boyle going back time and time again, making one great movie after another,” Darabont said. “It’s not all the franchise stuff, but there’s some really good movies that come out of that, too.”