NEWS

Prequel To The Shining Is Probably Dead

Posted: April 11, 2020, 15:45
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In an interview with Collider Mark Romanek says that the prequel to The Shining is probably dead.

Is The Overlook Hotel something that still might be happening? Is that a project that’s gone away now?

ROMANEK: It seems so. I mean, it’s a great script I think, it was based on a prologue to the novel that Stephen King wrote and then that prologue was cut for length. And so it’s based on Stephen King. It’s not just some thing somebody made up, and it’s more of an origin story on the, almost like a Western or a wilderness story, going back to the construction and the desecration of the Indian burial grounds, and the construction of the Overlook Hotel and to its meaning to its opening night.

Actually we wrote the script, it’s a really great script. The problem is it’s really expensive, it kind of reads like The Revenant or Heaven’s Gate or something and I think they wanted to try Doctor Sleep to see if—my impression is they wanted to see if there was this sort of Shining universe that would have financial life through them, or artistic life with the audience. And I think Doctor Sleep did just sort of okay, and given that our script is so costly, it’s a little dead in the water right now. But you never know, it’s a weird business. It’s a very good script. I’m proud of the script.

That sounds incredible.

ROMANEK: I was stupidly undaunted by its relationship to The Shining, because it takes place decades and decades before and there’s very little specific visual crossover. It was just, I thought, a really great story, based on Stephen King.

Thanks to Herbert West