Three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont was born in a refugee camp in1959 in Montbeliard, France, the son of Hungarian parents who had fledBudapest during the failed 1956 Hungarian revolution. Brought toAmerica as an infant, he settled with his family in Los Angeles andattended Hollywood High School. His first job in movies was as aproduction assistant on the 1981 low-budget film,Hell Night (1981), starringLinda Blair. He spent the next six yearsworking in the art department as a set dresser and in set constructionwhile struggling to establish himself as a writer. His first producedwriting credit (shared) was on the 1987 film,A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987),directed byChuck Russell.Darabont is one of only six filmmakers in history with the uniquedistinction of having his first two feature films receive nominationsfor the Best Picture Academy Award: 1994'sShôshanku no sora ni (1994)(with a total of seven nominations) and 1999'sGurîn Mairu (1999) (fournominations). Darabont himself collected Oscar nominations for BestAdapted Screenplay for each film (both based on works byStephen King), as well asnominations for both films from the Director's Guild of America, and anomination from the Writers Guild of America forShôshanku no sora ni (1994).He won the Humanitas Prize, the PEN Center USA West Award, and theScriptor Award for his screenplay of "The Shawshank Redemption". For"The Green Mile", he won the Broadcast Film Critics prize for hisscreenplay adaptation, and two People's Choice Awards in the BestDramatic Film and Best Picture categories.The Majestic (2001),starringJim Carrey, was released in December2001. He executive-producedthe thriller,Collateral (2004), forDreamWorks, withMichael Manndirecting andTom Cruise starring. Futureproduced-by projects include "Way of the Rat" at DreamWorks withChuck Russell adapting anddirecting the CrossGen comic book series and "Back Roads", a TawniO'Dell novel, also at DreamWorks, withTodd Field attached to direct. Darabont andhis production company, "Darkwoods Productions", have an overall dealwith Paramount Pictures.