Story Details Revealed for the Unproduced SHINING Prequel THE OVERLOOK HOTEL
A few years ago there was a Shining prequel film being developed for Warner Bros. titled The Overlook Hotel. The film was inspired by the original prologue that Stephen King wrote for the novel that gave a little history on the hotel. It’s actually pretty fascinating, and this a film project that I was super excited about!
The script for the film was written by Glen Mazzara, and during an interview with Bloody-Disgusting, he shared some awesome in-depth details on the story he was looking to tell. After reading through the details, I’m even more bummed out the movie was scrapped. This would have made a great movie!
The whole story would have revolved around the man who built The Overlook and how it came to be haunted. It’s described as being There Will Be Blood: The Horror Movie! When talking about this story, Mazzara explains:
“So they gave me a copy of that prologue, and there are little vignettes from every decade leading up to Jack Torrance’s arrival. And I think many of the other writers who came in to pitch on this assignment wanted to tell the backstory of the Grady twins. So they were clustering around that, but I backed it out and said ‘Well, we actually have the opening vignette about Bob T. Watson, the man who built the Overlook.’ And I thought, ‘This is interesting.’ Basically, I thought of it as There Will Be Blood: The Horror Movie. Let’s set it up as a robber baron, who has the arrogance and the privilege to build this monument to himself, and yet it turns into his family’s grave, and a grave for all who follow.
“So I liked that story. The Shining is basically a haunted house story…let’s talk about the guy who builds the house. I haven’t really seen that. We usually see people move into a haunted house. You don’t see the guy who builds the house. And why does he build that? Brad sparked to that idea. We brought it in to the executive, whose name was Sarah Schechter. So I wrote a first draft of the script. And she said very honestly, ‘This is exactly what we bought, this is exactly what King wrote, this is exactly what you promised…we’re never gonna make this movie. I just know Warner Brothers. They are never gonna make this version of this movie.’ So I said, ‘What will they make?’ She said, “Something else.’ So I said, ‘Okay, that’s remarkably honest. I don’t know what the answer is.’
“But I went off and came back with a pitch. We started to deviate a little bit from exactly what King had. I did so many drafts on this script. So we wrote the draft, and we sent it out to filmmakers. And many of the directors were actually afraid to take this on. Many, many people were passing. The thing was, many of the directors who passed were passing because they did not want to be in Kubrick’s shadow … the original film is a classic. Many consider it the best horror movie ever. Nobody wanted to touch it. They just felt that they just could not succeed, if they were following too closely to Kubrick. And I really studied The Shining when I was writing this script. I was like, ‘Why is this so scary?’ It’s a lot about camera angles, it’s a lot about tone, it’s a lot about direction. The script itself is not particularly scary. The direction of that movie is outstanding. That’s why that film is so frightening, and such a classic.”
Director Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) eventually signed onto direct the film. Mazzara went on to say, “I wrote that script with Kubrick in mind, but tried to honor King’s canon, King’s dialogue, the way he develops characters. I was very mindful when I was writing this screenplay … to show shots in which the audience is inhabiting the hotel with the camera, but not the characters. You sort of start wandering the hotel yourself. It creates a sense of unease. That comes from Kubrick. I did not find that in King’s material, I found that in Kubrick.”
It’s a shame that this movie never got made, it sounds like it would have made for an incredible film. There’s a full-on breakdown of the script and story that you can read here. For any of you who are fans of The Shining, this is something you’ve got to read!
It was also revealed that Brad Pitt was offered the role of Bob T. Watson, but turned it down because it was so dark and bleak. “There’s a horrific scene in which a young boy ends up dying. We heard that Brad was not interested in playing something that bleak. I never spoke to him, but word came back that it was not something he was … he’s a dad, and it just hit him, he didn’t want to participate. It wasn’t something that he wanted to play.”
Mazzara goes on to explain why The Overlook Hotel didn’t get made saying, “Eventually, what happened from my understanding, was that you had a Shining prequel with The Overlook Hotel, and you had a Shining sequel with Doctor Sleep. Warner Brothers wasn’t going to commit to making both, so they ended up going with Doctor Sleep.”
Doctor Sleep ended up being a fantastic movie, but it underperformed at the box office. So, instead of getting any more films, J.J. Abrams and King are developing a series for HBO Max titled Overlook. While I’m looking forward to that, it’s a shame that we’ll never see this Overlook Hotel movie get made. Make sure you read those story details!