Warner Bros taking a shine to a prequel for THE SHINING?

“Heeeeeeeeere’s Johnny! Again! Maybe!”

Sure to elicit screams about how “nothing is sacred” anymore, Warner Bros are looking to revisit the scary world dreamed up by Stanley Kubrick when he adapted Stephen King’s horror novel, The Shining. That’s right, it looks like we may just be headed back to the Overlook Hotel to assault more doors with axes.

The news broke via The LA Times, who are reporting that the studio is currently in the early stages of investigating the possibility of a prequel to the seminal 1980 horror film, which saw Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, who – along with his wife and psychic son – move to the beautiful but isolated Overlook Hotel as the off-season caretaker. Jack believes he’s never been there before, but as the situation at the hotel spiral out of control in a series of ever more horrific events, this belief is questioned.

This prequel would essentially be exploring the time at the Overlook Hotel before Jack and his family arrived, and what actually happened back then. Tasked with this is writer-producer Laeta Kalogridis and her partners, producer Bradley Fischer and writer James Vanderbilt. If Vanderbilt’s name seems familiar, it’s because the man has become one of the most high profile writers in Hollywood. He most recently penned The Amazing Spider-Man and will also write its upcoming sequel, is busy with the scripts for the Robocop remake, Roland Emmerich’s White House Down, John Madden’s Murder Mystery and has a string of well known movies behind him (Basic, Zodiac, The Rundown, The Losers).

Even more important though than Vanderbilt’s writing credentials, are those of Kalogridis, as her most recent effort was Martin Scorsese’s very Kubrickian Shutter Island, which shows that she certainly knows how to write this style of creepy horror.

It should be noted though that WB are very vocal in stating that this is still in the very early stages and may not see fruition. And while I have mixed feelings about whether there might actually be a story to tell here, I’m just happy it’s not some silly reboot with Channing Tatum or Shia Lebeouf in the lead role. Though, to be fair, I’d pay good money to see them frozen.

Last Updated: July 30, 2012