Development Director
Frank Darabont first encountered
Stephen King's novella
The Mist in the 1980 anthology
Dark Forces and was immediately interested in adapting it into a film. Originally, Darabont considered
The Mist for his directorial debut, but instead chose to adapt another of King's novellas,
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (1982) into
The Shawshank Redemption (1994), which went on to become a major critical success. After completing
The Shawshank Redemption, Darabont reiterated his interest in
The Mist in 1994, but chose to direct
The Green Mile (1999), an adaptation of King's 1996 novel
of the same name, before revisiting
The Mist. and by October 2006, the project moved from Paramount to
Dimension Films. Actor
Thomas Jane was brought into early negotiations to star in the film, which would eventually begin production in early 2007. Darabont described
The Mist as quaint in its elements of monsters and fear of the unknown, compared to the contemporary popularity of films with
torture porn. The director saw
The Mist as a throwback to
Paddy Chayefsky and
William Shakespeare, explaining that it was about "people at each other" more than the monsters themselves. Comparing his film to
Lord of the Flies, but with "some cool monsters in it," Darabont highlighted the element of fear that compels people to behave primitively. He wrote in 2005, but did not film, an opening scene in which the thunderstorm causes a malfunction at the project's lab that allows a portal to stay open too long.
Production In December 2006, Jane finalized his role in
The Mist, joining the cast as Drayton. By January 2007, additional actors such as Holden and
Andre Braugher were also confirmed for key roles.
William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn and Brian Libby, each of whom appeared in Darabont's previous Stephen King adaptations
The Shawshank Redemption and
The Green Mile, were cast in supporting roles. Sadler had previously played Jane's role, David Drayton, in a 1986
audiobook version of
The Mist. Darabont wanted to cast King in the supporting role that eventually went to Libby, an offer that King turned down because he did not want to travel to film the part. Production began in February 2007 at StageWorks of Louisiana, a sound stage and film production facility in
Shreveport, Louisiana. Later that month,
Marcia Gay Harden and
Toby Jones joined the
ensemble cast. The filming was scheduled to begin on February 20. Darabont sought a "fluid, ragged documentary" style for the film, drawing inspiration from his experience directing an episode of
The Shield. To achieve this, he enlisted the same camera crew. Although Darabont considered shooting
The Mist digitally, he ultimately chose to film on 400
ASA Fujifilm to give it a
grainy, not "too beautiful" texture. This artwork was created by Struzan, whose work also appears in the form of posters for films like
The Shawshank Redemption and
The Green Mile. Struzan went on to produce a poster for
The Mist, but this image was not used in the film's marketing campaign. Darabont worked closely with the production design team to blend multiple eras within the film's aesthetic, avoiding an overtly modern or period-specific feel. This mix is evident in details like characters using cell phones, while
military personnel are shown driving older
Jeeps instead of modern
Humvees. Local Louisiana brands, such as
Zapp's potato chips, were featured as part of the film's effort to ground its setting in a recognizable location.. The exterior shots of the grocery store were filmed in Vivian, Louisiana, at the now demolished Tom's Market.
Music Darabont chose to use music to minimal effect in
The Mist to capture the "heavier feel" of the darker ending he had written to replace the one from the novella. The director explained, "Sometimes movie music feels false. I've always felt that silent can be scarier than loud, a whisper more frightening than a bang, and we wanted to create a balance. We kept music to a minimum to keep that
vérité, documentary feel." Darabont chose to overlay the song "
Host of Seraphim" by the band
Dead Can Dance, a spiritual piece characterized by wailing and chanting. As a fan of Dead Can Dance, Darabont thought that the song played "as a
requiem mass for the human race." The original score was composed by
Academy Award-nominated composer
Mark Isham.
Effects Darabont hired artists
Jordu Schell and
Bernie Wrightson to assist in designing the creatures for the film. When the designs were completed, Nicotero and Burrell educated the cast on the appearance of the creatures by showing them puppets and the function of their eyes and mouths. The puppet demonstrations served as reference points for the cast, who had to respond to
motion-capture dots during filming. ==Release==