What is Frank Darabont's net worth?
Frank Darabont is an Hungarian-American director, producer, and writer, who has a net worth of $100 million dollars. Over a multi-decade career, Frank Darabont has written and/or directed dozens of extremely popular films. He has directed several film adaptations of Stephen King novellas, including "The Shawshank Redemption," and "The Green Mile."
Frank also co-created and developed the hit television show "The Walking Dead" for AMC. He also directed the show's pilot episode. As we detail later in this article, Frank's relationship with AMC soured very early on and he was fired in 2011. This led to a royalty lawsuit that dragged on for a decade and ultimately resulted in AMC paying Darabont and his talent agency CAA a $200 million settlement.
Early Life
Frank Árpád Darabont was born on January 28, 1959 in a refugee camp in Montbeliard, France. His parents had fled Hungary in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution. He fled with five brothers, four sisters and three cousins.
When he was an infant the family moved to the United States, so Frank grew up in Chicago and Los Angeles. After seeing George Lucas' film "THX 1138", he decided to pursue a film career, and began focusing on his goal immediately after graduating from Hollywood High School.
Career
He began his film career as a production assistant on such projects as "Hell Night", "The Seduction", and "Trancers".
He began to gain wider recognition in the film community after his short, "The Woman in the Room," which was adapted from a Stephen King short story. The film was a semi-finalist list for the Oscars in 1983.
Stephen King "Dollar Baby"
In 1977, Stephen King made the decision to allow select film students to pay just $1 for the rights to adapt his short stories into films. When Frank was a 20-year-old film student, he was selected as a "Dollar Baby" to adapt King's short "The Woman in the Room." Frank's film version was a semi-finalist for Academy Award consideration in 1983.
Frank's association with Stephen King would lead to a number of massive film successes.
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Frank wrote and directed "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile," and "The Mist" which were all Stephen King adaptions. "The Shawshank Redemption is considered, by some, the best movie of all time.
He then went on to write screenplays for "A Nightmare on Elm Street III", "The Blob", "The Fly II", "Tales from the Crypt", and "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles".
The Walking Dead
In 2010 Frank created and developed the "The Walking Dead" for AMC. The show was based on Robert Kirkman's comic book of the same name. He also served as a director, writer and producer, primarily in the first season. He directed the pilot episode.
AMC Settlement
In July 2011, Frank was fired from his position as show runner. AMC initially suggested he was fired for being unable to adjust to the fast-pace television production schedule. Darabont and his talent agency CAA sued AMC, initially seeking $280 million in unpaid profits.
In July 2021, exactly 10 years after being fired, Frank Darabont and CAA won a $200 million settlement from AMC. Darabont and CAA will also receive royalty payments from the show going forward. Of the $200 million, approximately $143 million went to settle the suit and acquire Darabon's IP rights and $57 million repaid the portion of profits he should have received according to the original deal.
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