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Walpuski's Typewriter
Book by Darabont, Frank
- GenresHorror
108 pages, Hardcover
First published March 30, 2005
1 person is currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Frank Darabont
25 books70 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 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 2, 2013
OCTOBER COUNTRY 2013
This little Faustian ditty is a hoot and a half, let me tell you and should you think my three stars indicates a less than enthusiastic recommendation, think again. I adore Frank Darabont because he is one of the few film directors out there who truly "gets" Stephen King's work (as an artist and as a fan). The proof is in Darabont's King adaptations onto the big screen with stunning cinematic results, including The Green Mile and my personal favourite -- The Shawshank Redemption.
There is a persistent rumor that Darabont is sitting on the film rights to King's Bachman novel The Long Walk, another favorite of mine which I like to re-read every couple of years. Just the thought of Darabont bringing this classic edge-of-your-seat dystopian nightmare to the big screen is enough to send me into a raving fangirl tizzy. So c'mon Darabont, get on that please before the zombies rise up and we're all more concerned with hoarding toilet paper.
But back to Walpuski's Typewriter. Darabont is a talented director, and an equally passionate screenwriter. He knows how to construct a story and give life to characters, but mostly in the visual sense. He is a man who thinks and experiences the world cinematically. Which is why you see his name on movie marquees, not on the New York Times bestsellers list.
But this fantastical tale laced with dark humor and outrageous outcomes showcases Darabont's admiration and respect for the craft of storytelling, in particular for the works of Stephen King and Anthony Boucher. In Walpuski's Typewriter Darabont is paying homage to these men, a short story that proves imitation is the highest form of flattery. King fans will chuckle. There's something here that feels so familiar and honest, in an adorable, tongue-in-cheek way. It's Creepshow and Tales from the Crypt, a delightfully gruesome story ripped from the pages of the 1950's EC horror comics.
It's appropriate I should be reviewing this on November 1st, as thousands of people all over the world sign up to participate in NaNoWriMo. The overwhelming urge to write a novel can make hungering desperadoes out of the most calm and sensible people. As all you NaNo participants venture forth this month to slay your literary dragon, ask yourself how far you would go to succeed in this madcap adventure, to bask in the glory of your triumph and drink from the sweet well of fame and notoriety?
My advice -- stick to pen and paper, and whatever you do, don't resurrect that old typewriter from your uncle's basement or grandma's attic.
This little Faustian ditty is a hoot and a half, let me tell you and should you think my three stars indicates a less than enthusiastic recommendation, think again. I adore Frank Darabont because he is one of the few film directors out there who truly "gets" Stephen King's work (as an artist and as a fan). The proof is in Darabont's King adaptations onto the big screen with stunning cinematic results, including The Green Mile and my personal favourite -- The Shawshank Redemption.
There is a persistent rumor that Darabont is sitting on the film rights to King's Bachman novel The Long Walk, another favorite of mine which I like to re-read every couple of years. Just the thought of Darabont bringing this classic edge-of-your-seat dystopian nightmare to the big screen is enough to send me into a raving fangirl tizzy. So c'mon Darabont, get on that please before the zombies rise up and we're all more concerned with hoarding toilet paper.
But back to Walpuski's Typewriter. Darabont is a talented director, and an equally passionate screenwriter. He knows how to construct a story and give life to characters, but mostly in the visual sense. He is a man who thinks and experiences the world cinematically. Which is why you see his name on movie marquees, not on the New York Times bestsellers list.
But this fantastical tale laced with dark humor and outrageous outcomes showcases Darabont's admiration and respect for the craft of storytelling, in particular for the works of Stephen King and Anthony Boucher. In Walpuski's Typewriter Darabont is paying homage to these men, a short story that proves imitation is the highest form of flattery. King fans will chuckle. There's something here that feels so familiar and honest, in an adorable, tongue-in-cheek way. It's Creepshow and Tales from the Crypt, a delightfully gruesome story ripped from the pages of the 1950's EC horror comics.
It's appropriate I should be reviewing this on November 1st, as thousands of people all over the world sign up to participate in NaNoWriMo. The overwhelming urge to write a novel can make hungering desperadoes out of the most calm and sensible people. As all you NaNo participants venture forth this month to slay your literary dragon, ask yourself how far you would go to succeed in this madcap adventure, to bask in the glory of your triumph and drink from the sweet well of fame and notoriety?
My advice -- stick to pen and paper, and whatever you do, don't resurrect that old typewriter from your uncle's basement or grandma's attic.
February 8, 2014
This was a pretty good read. It wasn't anything to write home about but was entertaining and fun, especially for a first story. I'd like to see if he's written any books because he's definitely promising.
May 22, 2019
Well, this was a fun one. Darabont's sharp novella (with a wicked sense of humor) about an old Selectric typewriter that becomes possessed by a demon definitely calls to mind King's Plymouth Fury Christine and The Mangler's industrial laundry press.
July 27, 2009
I've been waiting to read this one for a long time, so I expected that, after so long, it would probably disappoint me. It didn't.
Walpuski's Typewriter is a "truly silly" story, as Frank Darabont says in his introduction. He also says it's "old-fashioned," and he's right about that, too. But, as most people who know me know, I've got something of a soft spot for silly horror stories, and for old-fashioned ones, too, and Walpuski's Typewriter has all the best of both of those worlds.
It's the kind of story that would have been right at home in an issue of Creepy or Eerie, or on an episode of Tales from the Crypt. And it's also the kind of story you'll probably read in one sitting. And the illustrations by Bernie Wrightson don't hurt a bit, though they're not, as Darabont claims, "the reason to buy the book." The book is plenty of reason all by itself.
(One disclaimer here, though. If, like my lovely wife, you have trouble with stories in which violent and unpleasant fates befall pets, especially cats, then this is emphatically not the book for you.)
Walpuski's Typewriter is a "truly silly" story, as Frank Darabont says in his introduction. He also says it's "old-fashioned," and he's right about that, too. But, as most people who know me know, I've got something of a soft spot for silly horror stories, and for old-fashioned ones, too, and Walpuski's Typewriter has all the best of both of those worlds.
It's the kind of story that would have been right at home in an issue of Creepy or Eerie, or on an episode of Tales from the Crypt. And it's also the kind of story you'll probably read in one sitting. And the illustrations by Bernie Wrightson don't hurt a bit, though they're not, as Darabont claims, "the reason to buy the book." The book is plenty of reason all by itself.
(One disclaimer here, though. If, like my lovely wife, you have trouble with stories in which violent and unpleasant fates befall pets, especially cats, then this is emphatically not the book for you.)
December 11, 2025
Have you ever seen Stand By My? At the end of Gordies story of Lardass Hogan Vern, Chris and Teddy and jumping up and down celebrating what a great story it was. That’s exactly how I felt finishing Walpuski’s Typewriter. This was just a fun gruesome fast paced talk of over the top demonic bliss. Think Stephen Kings The Mangler meets Little Shop of Horrors. Frank Darabont is a well known and well respected creative mind and this short story just adds another fun layer to his talents.
April 11, 2019
Good Faustian fun and a quick read. I would have given it 4 stars... but cats tho.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 19, 2024
Howard Walpuski is a hack writer whose typewriter has broken down. He takes it to a shop to be repaired, but the shop owner does more than repair it. He has placed a demon in it, a demon which will write bestselling books. The shop owner's price was $5 (the five crinkly bills that Walpuski had to his name) plus 10% of all residuals from the forthcoming books. The demon in the typewriter asks for something a bit more.
It is a Faustian story, but one with a sense of humor (albeit a sick sense of humor). Great fun!
It is a Faustian story, but one with a sense of humor (albeit a sick sense of humor). Great fun!
January 3, 2017
Surprisingly this is a very fun story. I was hesitant to buy this as it is the only story by Frank Darabont, and he's a film director not a writer, but I was glad I did. This was a fun dark comedy story of horror. It's about a writer who makes a deal with a local typewriter salesman to repair his typewriter. What he didn't know was this guy was going to put a demon in his typewriter to help him write. Obviously this doesn't go well. The author gets better, but at a price. This was easy to read, kept the reader entertained with humor throughout and was just a fun little scary story. Plus there are some good illustrations by Bernie Wrightson within the book. I liked this book a lot: recommended!
September 27, 2008
Walpuski was a struggling writer, with five dollars to his name, when his typewriter broke. Getting it fixed on credit turned out to be the best, worst, and most dangerous thing that ever happened to him.
This novella was written by a very young Darabont, long before he got into a film career. He admits it was a silly, pulpy, and distinctly unpolished piece several times over the course of the introduction. Still, it's entertaining, it has a classic horror feel to it, and it definitely pays homage to the greats who influenced him. Darabont works for Castle Rock Entertainment, and was involved in The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, as well as a few others.
This novella was written by a very young Darabont, long before he got into a film career. He admits it was a silly, pulpy, and distinctly unpolished piece several times over the course of the introduction. Still, it's entertaining, it has a classic horror feel to it, and it definitely pays homage to the greats who influenced him. Darabont works for Castle Rock Entertainment, and was involved in The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, as well as a few others.
July 14, 2013
This one reads pretty quick. The points at which the typewriter 'talk' to Walpuski come off as first draft garble which at first I thought was just poor e-reader editing (because it seems so prevalent in ebooks) but once I got it, I found it rather clever.
I like the escalation, the pace, the gleeful fun of a meat eating typewriter/demon. Just when things seem to have gone too far, there is a double-cross, and then the trap is sprung.
Walpuski's last book sells better than the first two. His agent said it best: "More than anyone I've ever known, he (Walpuski) threw himself completely into his work. Head first."
lol
I like the escalation, the pace, the gleeful fun of a meat eating typewriter/demon. Just when things seem to have gone too far, there is a double-cross, and then the trap is sprung.
Walpuski's last book sells better than the first two. His agent said it best: "More than anyone I've ever known, he (Walpuski) threw himself completely into his work. Head first."
lol
September 20, 2011
Loved it! Quick fun read.
Walpuski is a struggling writer (writing for a tabloid magazine), who steps into a typewriter repair shop one evening. After this, the madness spins like crazy until the end of the story. At times I was reading the writing of the typewriter as the voice from Jack in The Shining. Loved every second of this little story.
Walpuski is a struggling writer (writing for a tabloid magazine), who steps into a typewriter repair shop one evening. After this, the madness spins like crazy until the end of the story. At times I was reading the writing of the typewriter as the voice from Jack in The Shining. Loved every second of this little story.
October 6, 2013
Sometimes when you finally get your wish, there's a big price to pay, and it may not be what you expected! Howard Walpuski, an aspiring writer, is finding this out.
With a lot of horror and a little bit of scary humor, this is not one to miss. Thoroughly enjoyed.
With a lot of horror and a little bit of scary humor, this is not one to miss. Thoroughly enjoyed.
May 30, 2013
Great reading!
November 20, 2013
If you have an hour or so, read this funny, quirky story. Could not keep the smile off my face as I turned each page.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews