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The Green Mile: The Screenplay
Tells the story of John Coffey, a death row inmate who exhibits supernatural powers that make the guards and prisoners around him reexamine their lives
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
23 people are currently reading
9523 people want to read
About the author
Frank Darabont
25 books71 followersFrank Darabont (born January 28, 1959) is a Hungarian-American film director, screenwriter and producer. He has directed the films The Shawshank Redemption,The Green Mile, and The Mist.
Early life
Darabont was born in a refugee camp in 1959 in Montbeliard, France. His parents fled Hungary after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. When he was still an infant, his family moved to the United States.
Career
By the age of 20, Darabont became involved in filmmaking. One of his first films was a short adaptation of Stephen King's The Woman in the Room, which made the semi-finalist list for Academy Award consideration in 1983, and was shown in its entirety in the 1986 syndicated television special, Stephen King's World of Horror.[citation needed] The short, a Dollar Baby, led to a close association with King, who granted him the "handshake deal" rights to another one of his shorter works, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption from the collection Different Seasons.
Prior to his directing career, Darabont was a successful screenwriter with work on genre films that included: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Blob, The Fly II and an unproduced sequel to Commando. Darabont made his feature length directorial debut with Buried Alive, a TV movie with a $2,000,000 budget that aired on the USA Network in 1990. Darabont followed with an extended run as writer for George Lucas' short-lived television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. He became famous, however, after making good on the deal with Stephen King by writing and directing 1994 The Shawshank Redemption for which he was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay at the 1995 Academy Awards. The film was also nominated for six other Academy Awards including Best Picture.
After a five-year hiatus, Darabont returned to the screen with the well-received The Green Mile, a film he directed, scripted and produced. Like The Shawshank Redemption, this film is also based on a Stephen King work. The film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture and Darabont was nominated for his second Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. He followed this with The Majestic two years later in 2001 to considerably less fanfare. Following lukewarm reviews from critics, the film failed at the box-office, recouping only half of its $72 million budget internationally.
Darabont is known to have doctored the scripts of the Steven Spielberg films Saving Private Ryan and Minority Report. In 2002, he penned an early draft of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and while Spielberg reportedly loved it, George Lucas rejected it.
In 2005, Cemetery Dance Publications published Darabont's novella Walpuski's Typewriter in a limited edition. The story, originally written in his early twenties, first appeared in Jessie Horsting's magazine Midnight Graffiti. His 2007 film The Mist marked his fourth adaptation of a Stephen King work, and the film received worldwide praise from many audiences, despite not being a hit at the box office.
Recently, director Guillermo del Toro commented that he had read a draft of Frankenstein written by Darabont that he would "kill to direct." However, in recent months Del Toro has been attached to many other projects and it looks as if his involvement in the project is unlikely. No official word has been given on the film's development. Darabont has also explained that he will be adapting King's The Long Walk into a film. No plans have been made for it yet, but Darabont explained that he would "get there eventually."
Darabont appeared in an October 26, 2008 episode of Entourage called First Class Jerk, where he propositions Vincent Chase to star in a TV show he is executive producing. He appeared in a September 12, 2009 episode where he is now the director of the film about Enzo Ferrari, who Vince is portraying.
Darabont is currently at work on a new AMC series based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F
Early life
Darabont was born in a refugee camp in 1959 in Montbeliard, France. His parents fled Hungary after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. When he was still an infant, his family moved to the United States.
Career
By the age of 20, Darabont became involved in filmmaking. One of his first films was a short adaptation of Stephen King's The Woman in the Room, which made the semi-finalist list for Academy Award consideration in 1983, and was shown in its entirety in the 1986 syndicated television special, Stephen King's World of Horror.[citation needed] The short, a Dollar Baby, led to a close association with King, who granted him the "handshake deal" rights to another one of his shorter works, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption from the collection Different Seasons.
Prior to his directing career, Darabont was a successful screenwriter with work on genre films that included: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Blob, The Fly II and an unproduced sequel to Commando. Darabont made his feature length directorial debut with Buried Alive, a TV movie with a $2,000,000 budget that aired on the USA Network in 1990. Darabont followed with an extended run as writer for George Lucas' short-lived television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. He became famous, however, after making good on the deal with Stephen King by writing and directing 1994 The Shawshank Redemption for which he was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay at the 1995 Academy Awards. The film was also nominated for six other Academy Awards including Best Picture.
After a five-year hiatus, Darabont returned to the screen with the well-received The Green Mile, a film he directed, scripted and produced. Like The Shawshank Redemption, this film is also based on a Stephen King work. The film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture and Darabont was nominated for his second Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. He followed this with The Majestic two years later in 2001 to considerably less fanfare. Following lukewarm reviews from critics, the film failed at the box-office, recouping only half of its $72 million budget internationally.
Darabont is known to have doctored the scripts of the Steven Spielberg films Saving Private Ryan and Minority Report. In 2002, he penned an early draft of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and while Spielberg reportedly loved it, George Lucas rejected it.
In 2005, Cemetery Dance Publications published Darabont's novella Walpuski's Typewriter in a limited edition. The story, originally written in his early twenties, first appeared in Jessie Horsting's magazine Midnight Graffiti. His 2007 film The Mist marked his fourth adaptation of a Stephen King work, and the film received worldwide praise from many audiences, despite not being a hit at the box office.
Recently, director Guillermo del Toro commented that he had read a draft of Frankenstein written by Darabont that he would "kill to direct." However, in recent months Del Toro has been attached to many other projects and it looks as if his involvement in the project is unlikely. No official word has been given on the film's development. Darabont has also explained that he will be adapting King's The Long Walk into a film. No plans have been made for it yet, but Darabont explained that he would "get there eventually."
Darabont appeared in an October 26, 2008 episode of Entourage called First Class Jerk, where he propositions Vincent Chase to star in a TV show he is executive producing. He appeared in a September 12, 2009 episode where he is now the director of the film about Enzo Ferrari, who Vince is portraying.
Darabont is currently at work on a new AMC series based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
May 9, 2021
Loved loved loved this movie and book. I know that I cried at certain parts. Very heartbreaking story. Hope u have your tissue boxes ready when you see or read this !?!?
December 17, 2023
این فیلم رو آنقدر دوست داشتم که اون زمانی که اسکرین پلی ها رو میخوندم ببینم چقدر از فیلم یادم میاد (یه بازه ای تو نوجوونی بود) اسکرین پلی این هم با بدبختی پیدا کردم و خوندم.
February 13, 2020
The Green Mile was an original book series by Stephen King, but I feel as though this screenplay did it justice. The story was about a prison inmate sentenced to death, but he has Jesus like abilities that can heal someone, but he takes the pain himself. We also see life in death row and how prisoners live, which was pretty nice besides the fact that they were sentenced to death. The guards are supposed to treat the inmates with respect due to it being the last couple of weeks of their lives. This is a side of prison I've never seen before, which was a nice change from other novels. This was a terrific book and I recommend it.
June 17, 2020
I had watched the movie but never read the book. I loved the movie, loved the book more. This is the screenplay
January 3, 2016
El libro es amor. La película es amor.
July 25, 2020
Possibly the greatest film adaption of King's work. It made me cry like a baby the first time I saw it and it still hits me pretty hard to this day. John Coffey is great character played by a brilliant actor.
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July 26, 2008در صورت تمایل، جهت مشخصات فیلمی که بر اساس این کتاب ساخته شده است؛ میتوانید از لینک زیر استفاده بفرمایید
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120689
September 19, 2025
The Green Mile, based on novel by Stephen King
The public has rated this motion picture as one of the best ever made, on the popularity chart available on the IMDB site, it is placed at number 32.
The critics have also loved this film, nominated for four Oscars and other prestigious awards, a feature with a very unusual story that you either like or dismiss as preposterous.
The Green Mile has a stellar cast, headed by Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb, with another Oscar winner, Sam Rockwell as "Wild Bill" Wharton, but the the one who steals the show is Michael Clarke Duncan in the role of John Coffey.
The characters involved in this narrative are connected with Death Row, either as inmates waiting for the electric chair to kill them, or as guards that keep the prisoners locked in this penitentiary, awaiting their execution.
Some of the condemned are terrible human beings, like Wild Bill, but none seems to be as awful as Percy Wetmore, who is one of the guards, inviting the audience to meditate on how relative Justice, guilt, punishment, mercy can be, for this is an individual who deserves the most fierce retribution and he is out, free, while the innocent John Coffey is waiting for his death, when he is one the kindest, most special, gifted humans alive - or dead for that matter.
It is true that this is where we enter an awkward territory, for this hero has Supernatural powers...he will heal a sick woman, return a dead mouse from the dead and more.
What separates this wonderful film from light fare like Iron Man, Avengers and other such features with comic books characters is the tone, the seriousness, solidity of the narrative, the strength of the characters, the worthwhile themes and the restrained treatment of the Supernatural part of the fiction.
John Coffey performs some otherworldly tricks- the ones aforementioned- but this is just a small fragment of a rather long and worthwhile motion picture.
Besides, the use of new DNA tests and other modern forensic science methods have demonstrated that even people of Death Row have been innocent of the murders for which they were condemned to die, therefore the idea of the innocent victim is not absurd.
The next step is to see how kind and gentle this prisoner is and then observe that his presence has a soothing quality, even when perceived through the medium of the television film.
And let us think of another "impossible outcome" , this time with a very negative connotation...
The arrival of Trump at the helm of the civilized world.
This sounds as outlandish as a prisoner curing cancer by touch...well, maybe not the dead mouse brought to life, but it is close.
Even if The Green Mile is mainstream and does not qualify as a horror movie, it is still has some very gruesome scenes.
Take the execution of a prisoner, assigned to the care of the Devil aka Percy Wetmore, who is so cruel and sadistic that he does not want the poor condemned man to just die, but he wants to torture him.
Therefore, at the crucial moment, when he has to soak a sponge in water to allow electro to flow from the installation into the body of the sentenced inmate, the despicable villain decides to place a dry thing between the head and the source of death.
The result is terrifying and appalling, for the poor human being is set on fire, because the whole thing is not operating as it should and the convulsions, the pain, the shouts, the chaos are overwhelmingly and abhorrent.
There is a sort of Payback for the abjection of this loathsome, inhuman creature, when the two worst personages on stage confront each other and inflict some well deserved punishment on the two Devilish apparitions on Death Row.
The film is long, complex, worthwhile, deep, entertaining and unexpected.
It is a remarkable, memorable achievement.
October 27, 2023
The Green Mile is a masterpiece of storytelling from Stephen King. It is a story about hope, friendship, and the power of love. It is also a story about the darkness that exists within all of us, and the importance of fighting against it.
The story is set in the 1930s on death row, known as the Green Mile because of the green linoleum that covers the floor. The protagonist is Paul Edgecombe, a corrections officer who befriends a new inmate named John Coffey, a gentle giant who is convicted of murdering two young girls.
Paul soon realizes that John is not guilty of the crimes he is accused of. He is also aware that John has a supernatural gift: the ability to heal the sick and injured. Paul and the other corrections officers on the Green Mile do everything they can to protect John and help him find justice.
The Green Mile is a beautifully written and emotionally powerful novel. King's characters are complex and believable, and his setting is vivid and atmospheric. The story is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, and it will stay with you long after you finish reading it.
Pros:
Complex and well-developed characters
Beautiful and evocative writing
Emotionally powerful story
Explores themes such as hope, friendship, love, and the power of good versus evil
Cons:
The novel is quite long (over 1,000 pages), but it is well worth the read.
Some readers may find the novel to be too depressing, as it deals with some heavy themes such as death and injustice.
The story is set in the 1930s on death row, known as the Green Mile because of the green linoleum that covers the floor. The protagonist is Paul Edgecombe, a corrections officer who befriends a new inmate named John Coffey, a gentle giant who is convicted of murdering two young girls.
Paul soon realizes that John is not guilty of the crimes he is accused of. He is also aware that John has a supernatural gift: the ability to heal the sick and injured. Paul and the other corrections officers on the Green Mile do everything they can to protect John and help him find justice.
The Green Mile is a beautifully written and emotionally powerful novel. King's characters are complex and believable, and his setting is vivid and atmospheric. The story is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, and it will stay with you long after you finish reading it.
Pros:
Complex and well-developed characters
Beautiful and evocative writing
Emotionally powerful story
Explores themes such as hope, friendship, love, and the power of good versus evil
Cons:
The novel is quite long (over 1,000 pages), but it is well worth the read.
Some readers may find the novel to be too depressing, as it deals with some heavy themes such as death and injustice.
December 18, 2025
Four stars, because some stories don’t need to shout to stay with you.
This one moved slowly, but every step mattered. The writing felt calm, even gentle at times,but underneath, there’s something heavy. Not dramatic. Just true. There’s so much pain in this book, but also so much dignity. I didn’t expect to feel so much for these characters, but I did. Deeply.
It’s one of those stories that keeps circling in your thoughts long after you finish it. Not because of what happened, but because of how it happened. The choices. The kindness. The weight of justice. The cost of being human.
This one moved slowly, but every step mattered. The writing felt calm, even gentle at times,but underneath, there’s something heavy. Not dramatic. Just true. There’s so much pain in this book, but also so much dignity. I didn’t expect to feel so much for these characters, but I did. Deeply.
It’s one of those stories that keeps circling in your thoughts long after you finish it. Not because of what happened, but because of how it happened. The choices. The kindness. The weight of justice. The cost of being human.
July 9, 2024
I watched this for the first time as a 7 year old and I swore I’d never watch it again because who’d put themselves through that. I then re watched and decided to read the book when I was in high school and I cannot say enough good things. The movie was a masterpiece and the book was even better. Have tissues and be ready to question everything you think you know is right.
December 30, 2021
I have read the books two times, watched the movie a million times, but this is the first time I read the screenplay.
And now I would have to watch the movie again. And maybe read the book. Again. Because it was that good.
And now I would have to watch the movie again. And maybe read the book. Again. Because it was that good.
February 12, 2022
Not going to lie it was a long read. There are multiple story lines and many characters you have to follow through the course of the novel. I thought some of the chapters were kind of dragged out. Overall i enjoyed the storyline and want to re-read it again in the future.
February 22, 2023
I read this when it was released in several small books. I remember sitting in my bedroom and ugly crying at the end. I loved the movie, but I LOVED the books!! You understand John so much more. The fact that he never understands why this is happening to him in the books is what broke me 😭
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 20, 2023
I've read the books three times and watched the movie many more times, but this is the first time I have read the screenplay. Now I'm going to have to watch the movie again. And maybe read the book. Again. Awesome!
January 4, 2024
"Si ocurre así es porque Dios permite que ocurra, y cuando le decimos , Él responde ."
"El mundo gira y así son las cosas. Uno puede resignarse y girar con él o levantarse para protestar y seguir girando de todos modos".
"Un amor grotesco es mejor que ningún amor"
"El mundo gira y así son las cosas. Uno puede resignarse y girar con él o levantarse para protestar y seguir girando de todos modos".
"Un amor grotesco es mejor que ningún amor"
September 2, 2025
A script that channels the sorrow and wonder of King’s tale. Darabont’s words conjure a prison aglow with quiet magic, yet the format binds its wings. John Coffey’s story pierces the heart, though the page lacks the full radiance of its celluloid kin.
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November 26, 2019Christ this movie terrifying
June 23, 2020
Love the Green Mile, Love Stephen King
July 9, 2020
One of my favorite books ever. Truly the first book that I cried my eyes out!
August 19, 2020
Great book! There were times it made me laugh then times it made me cry
January 2, 2021
An amazing, touching story!
December 10, 2021
Excellent book, the story is good.
June 18, 2022
Frank Darabont is an amazing screenwriter and director and this adaptation is just as moving as King’s novel. I saw it playing out like the final movie in my head.
February 15, 2023
This book had me crying. It was stunning. It saddens me that things like this outside of the obvious can happen all the time.
March 15, 2023
Truly an excellent book.
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July 24, 2023Love this story. Love almost everything Stephen King does.
August 25, 2023
A great book, movie, and screenplay!
January 17, 2024
A really good story but with a sad ending
February 15, 2024
I absolutely loved this book! It had every single element to keep me reading. The movie was exactly what I had pictured from reading the book - this is highly unusual and very enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews