Just because a film’s revered as a classic doesn’t mean it’s safe from the remake/reboot/prequel treatment. And with Hollywood currently in love with reinvigorating old classics, the latest film it’s turned its attention on is The Shining .
Warner Bros is contemplating making a prequel to Stanley Kubrick’s classy adaptation of Stephen King’s book.
Seeing as King never wrote a prequel to his Shining , this would obviously be entirely new material and presumably explore the bloody history of the Overlook Hotel.
A spokesman for the studio says that the concept is “in a very early stage and not even formally in development”, so chances are this could still fall apart before a script gets written.
Kubrick’s film was released in 1980, and starred Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, who moves into the Overlook Hotel with his family over the winter. The rest, of course, is history.
Though last year’s Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes proved that prequels can be done well, this one feels particularly unnecessary, especially considering the extent to which Kubrick’s film depends on its many unsolved mysteries.
With a Carrie remake in development over at MGM, though, we’re just happy Warner Bros aren’t looking to remake The Shining completely. Time will tell what happens with this one…