‘Overlook Hotel’ – Mark Romanek to direct ‘The Shining’ prequel

Warner Bros plan origins story of Stanley Kubrick's horror classic starring Jack Nicholson

Mark Romanek (Never Let Me Go) will direct Overlook Hotel – the Warner Bros prequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

The 1980 horror classic, based on the novel by Stephen King, starred Jack Nicholson in one of his most memorable roles. Taking an axe to Shelley Duvall’s bathroom door he utters the immortal line: “Here’s Johnny!”

Romanek has previous in the suspense genre having directed Robin Williams in 2002 creep fest One Hour Photo. According to Variety, screenplay duties will fall to Glenn Mazarra (The Walking Dead).

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But the project does not have Stephen King’s blessing. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly last year the writer was less than happy about plans to base Overlook Hotel on the original prologue to his novel.

“There’s a real question about whether or not they have the rights to ‘Before the Play,’ which was the prologue cut from the book – because the epilogue to the book was called ‘After the Play.’

So they were bookends, and there was really scary stuff in that prologue that wouldn’t make a bad movie. Am I eager to see that happen? No I am not.”

However, King admitted he was “curious to see what will happen” but the writer said he “would be just as happy if it didn’t.”

The Shining’s re-release in 2012 coincided with Rodney Ascher’s documentary Room 237 examining the musings of the film’s obsessed fans. Room 237 included the wild conspiracy theory that the film was Kubrick’s apology for faking the moon landings.

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