With filming set to start on Frank Darabont’s The Mist – an adaptation of Stephen King’s classic novella that is already one of Empire’s ten most anticipated projects – very soon, and only Thomas Jane confirmed in the lead role, we were wondering when Mr. Frank would get a move on with casting the rest of the movie’s characters.
The answer, clearly, was ‘today’, when Darabont revealed two more additions to his low-budget horror movie, about an otherworldly mist, containing all manner of nasty Lovecraftian beasties, that consumes a small town in Maine (and beyond), forcing a small group of disparate characters into a supermarket, where they must not only fend off the creatures without, but the monsters within…
Jane’s been on board as the heroic David Drayton for a while now, and today he was joined by Laurie Holden and the mighty Andre Braugher, who you should all know from the wonderful and oft-lamented TV show, Homicide: Life On The Street.
Holden, who also starred in Darabont’s last movie, 2001’s The Majestic, will play Amanda Dumfries, a local woman who establishes a connection with Drayton during the siege. “She is stupendous, talented and gorgeous," Darabont told The Hollywood Reporter. "She plays a very key role as one the people trapped in this existential Stephen King nightmare. On the good side of the aisle, she is the female lead of the movie."
And, over on the bad side of the aisle is Braugher, who will play Brenton Norton, a high-powered lawyer who is also Drayton’s neighbour, and who quickly proves antagonistic when the titular menace comes rolling in.
Darabont and King fans will of course be aware that Bob Gunton's bad guy prison warden in The Shawshank Redemption also bore the surname, ‘Norton’… perhaps a sign that The Mist is drifting in the right direction? Empire certainly thinks so – everything we’ve heard and seen about this project so far would indicate that it’s worth getting excited about. Darabont may have a reputation as the new Frank Capra, but deep inside he’
Darabont will shoot the movie, budgeted around the $15 million mark and with gruesome designs and effects by the team at KNB, in Louisiana from February, with an eye on a 2008 release. Look for more from Darabont on The Mist on this very website soon.