The SHINING prequel THE OVERLOOK HOTEL has been trapped in a slow-moving circle of Development Hell for quite some time, but with a script by Glenn Mazzara (The Walking Dead) and director Mark Romanek (ONE HOUR PHOTO) at the helm, it has a solid foundation to build from. In Collider's recent interview with producer James Vanderbilt, he discussed the project in a little more detail:
You want a real filmmaker like Mark doing it… Honestly I think people will really be excited about it, because it’s not like "20 Years Before The Shining!". I don’t want to give too much away about the story but the way [screenwriter] Glen [Mazzara] cracked it and the way Mark has sort of cracked it, it’s completely it’s own film, which I think is super smart. It’s not like, "When Scatman Crothers was young, he…’" it’s not that.
It's encouraging to hear that the prequel won't be too beholden to Stanley Kubrick's original classic, especially because that cast has since scattered to the winds (or in some cases, the terrifying halls of a science classroom). So far, what we know is that OVERLOOK HOTEL tells:
…the origin story of the Overlook Hotel through the eyes of its first owner, Bob T. Watson. A robber baron at the turn of the 20th century, Watson scaled the remote peaks of the Colorado Rockies to build the grandest resort in America, and a place he and his family would also call home.
I'm curious to see if the prequel incorporates the paranormal elements that made both the book and the film so famous. Presumably the hotel wouldn't have any ghosts while it's being built, because nobody has actually died in it yet. Could it be possible that it could just be a straight organized crime film rather than a horror flick? Honestly, that might be the only way to truly separate it from the torrid tale of the Torrance family, but it would be a long time before fans came around to accepting it.
THE OVERLOOK HOTEL still has no start date, but Vanderbilt seems quite confident that it'll get off the ground soon. More on this story as it develops!