So, which would you rather see at this point, because at least one of them is coming: the story of Jack Torrance before the events at the Overlook Hotel or what happens to Danny afterward? If your answer is “neither,” well too bad, because at least one of these is getting made. Maybe both.
The LA Times reports that Warner Bros. is looking at turning the wheels on a prequel to Stanley Kubrick‘s “The Shining.” While a studio spokesperson insists it’s not officially in development (yet), WB is apparently already reaching out to Laeta Kalogridis (“Avatar,” “Shutter Island“), Bradley Fischer (“Black Swan,” “Zodiac“) and James Vanderbilt (“Zodiac,” “The Amazing Spider-Man“) to come up with a concept.
Meanwhile, Stephen King himself has penned “Doctor Sleep,” a sequel that will drop in bookstores next year on January 15, 2013. As of yet, the movie rights haven’t been optioned but we figure it’s only a matter of time at this point. The kind-of-insane plot catches up with Danny, now in his middle age, who must help save tween Abra from a muderous tribe of paranormals (we’re not kidding) called The True Knot who are living off the “steam” produced when they torture children who can “shine.” Good Lord. You can read the full synopsis below.
Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special twelve-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and tween Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death.
Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”
Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted readers of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.
Both of these ideas sound horrible (and good luck to whoever has to fill Jack Nicholson‘s shoes in the prequel) but odds are probably one of these will get made. King famously hated Kubrick’s film and probably won’t be thrilled to hear WB will continue to riff on his book (and it does raise some interesting rights questions), but either scenario is about as bad as making a “Raging Bull II“….oh wait….
i wana fuck stephen ging litle penis and cut it off becous i am sadistic gey
A better idea. A film about a filmmaker who goes to the Overlook hotel to try to make a film based on the reported events that transpired. But the filmmaker can't seem to get the ideas together (he's no Kubrick) and actors are earnest but unreliable. He hunts down the original now middle aged and in an institution Danny Torrance for consult even though he doesn't believe Danny's tales. Things happen.
8 1/2 meets Shadow of the Vampire, BAM!
just kidding that's an awful idea
I'd like a prequel of the Overlook Hotel itself…the past horrors that occurred there, what happened with all the people in the old photographs and on that long-ago New Year's Eve…not so interested in the past of Jack though…
I'm not entirely sure how they're planning on coming up with a prequel, or why they would want to. Before 'The Shining', the only thing interesting that Jack Torrance did was drink too much and kinda sorta abuse his son one time. I'm not seeing a very interesting horror film there… I'm excited about the sequel though.
still waiting for the remake of Salem's Lot; no idea who could pull off the producing/directing, though.
Movies are becoming a dying art form. There are plenty of great actors, and actresses out there. However there are not creative people in charge of the movies being made. They are picking what is being made by what made money before. It is safe to say oh Friday the 13th, made money lets remake it. Yeah except it sucked. Lets remake Nightmare on Elm St. Yeah except without Robert Englund it isn't the same, he is Freddy. I love Stephen King, I love horror, and Sci-fi. I am your all around geek. They need someone with balls enough to tell them that this shit sucks. Lets come up with something new. I don't mean like Scifi channel new, you know gaint sharks vs dino or whatever. Those are dumb too. There are other things that could be done. It seems the only new stuff that people like coming out now are the girly chic flicks. That isn't working for me.
Now that's a trilogy I would read.
(Not the same as that other "Angel") OMG! There's only like a billion books in the Biblioteca Galactica. Do we have to rehash the same stories and characters over and over again? I want to blame it on cable. Their entire day is reruns of the very few shows they produce along with syndicated stuff from decades past that has our current society brain-dead on the couch in "Groundhog Day" fashion. But ultimate it's on the Hollywood types who have shown they've run out of all the ideas they can steal from one another when they go to synagogue. Jesus! This is why we're grabbing stuff from Britain which I [wrongly] thought hit a wall when it ran out of Sherlock and Shakespeare material. People of Hollywood: this is what happens when you've closed off your subculture to outsiders (and literature in general). Tinseltown, TEAR DOWN YOUR WALL!!
To quote Stephen King, "They are all going to laugh at you. " Dear lord are there no creative writers left on this planet anymore? If I waste any money seeing this, I am going to go at it as a comedy. You know like the Scary Movies series. I think I will wait until it is on cable. If I am lucky I will never actually see it, unless I can't sleep really late at night. I am tried of watching bad remakes of good movies too. I saw the leaked parted of Carrie, no it wasn't enough to get a good feel of the movie. I still think it is going to be bad. I loved Sissy Spacek as Carrie, and how many times do you try to remake a movie before you give up. Find better writers, there has to be creative people in the world. God knows we exist. Get enough of us together we can come up with something new, or at least can write a script for some good books.
I would be much more interested in the story of the previous incidents at the overlook rather than the story of a young Jack.
these movies are the worst ideas. worse than Greedo shooting first.
I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel if the sequel is based on the book and the miniseries, like it appears to be. The original movie sucked big time, as far as I am concerned, so if they are using that a basis for a prequel or a sequel, I will not bother watching.
I'd prefer to see the following Danny aspect. However, if they do a prequel? It'd be much more interesting to make the "character" so to speak the Overlook Hotel. Show all it's gruesome history and violence.
ENOUGH ALREADY!
The Studios are ruininng Cinema with their sequels, prequels and all the prequels of the adaptation of the sequel.
ENOUGH ALREADY!
What about the story of the "Hotel" prior to Jack arriving?
So options are: an American horror story imitation in the Overlook hotel… or a remake posing as a prequel (guy goes nuts and kill family) like The Thing did…
I hope the prequel mixes elements of the original Shining with Brokeback Mountain and features as the main characters the guy with the dog head getting a BJ at the end and whoever it is that is sucking him.
If they do a prequel to The Shining movie, why focus on a young Jack Torrence? He is not the star, the hotel is the star. You'd have to tell the story of the Overlook in it's early days eventually leading up to Grady staying for the winter and killing his family. If you're gonna do it, do it right, Hollywood people!
sounds like shit.
these studio execs just get more and more stupid everyday.
R.I.P. cinema
Well, they don't have to look far at all for any kind of prequel concept–I mean, think about the last shot of Kubrick's Shining! July 4th, 1923 or whatever it is! The Overlook Hotel is supposed to have stood been built in the 1890s–it's been haunted for decades, there must have been hundreds of horror stories that happened there long before Jack and his family arrived. Furthermore, King's book is full of material about the history of the hotel, both natural and supernatural. He details all kinds of horrible events that took place at the Overlook, and there's even an entire prologue to the book called "Before The Play" which King cut from the novel, a series of chapters about the horrors of the past. I think letting other writers go to work on The Overlook is perfectly good idea–I'm surprised it hasn't been done before.
I love this idea.
I promise you that neither film will make any real money.