The LA Times is reporting that Warner Bros. is hoping to put into motion a prequel to Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror film The Shining. The studio is asking writers Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island), Bradley Fischer (Black Swan) and James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man) to come up with a concept for the film and though the project isn’t officially in development just yet, we can expect an official announcement in the near future.
Now, if you’ve been keeping up with the world of novels, you’ll know that author Stephen King has an upcoming book titled Doctor Sleep, which will act as a sequel to The Shining and is set to hit bookshelves on January 15th. While the movie rights haven’t been optioned yet, with all this renewed interest in the 80’s horror classic, you can expect a studio to pick up the rights pretty quickly.
If you’re unfamiliar with the plot of Doctor Sleep, check out the summary 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.
Admittedly, it sounds pretty terrible and I’d much rather see the prequel make its way to the big screen. That being said, knowing how Hollywood works, it’s a safe bet that the sequel will also make it to film.
While I do love The Shining, some things are better left untouched. The original film is an absolute classic and if Warner Bros. is hoping to put out a sequel and/or a prequel, things might get messy. Plus, to be honest, I really don’t think anyone can fill the shoes of Jack Nicholson for the prequel, who else would be able to play that part as well as he did?
Like I said above, The Shining is pretty much a perfect horror film and I fear that if the studio doesn’t put things together properly, a prequel, or a sequel may ruin the film’s reputation.
What do you think? Would you want to see a prequel or a sequel to The Shining?
