Last year saw the release of Doctor Sleep, an adaptation of Stephen King‘s novel that served as a sequel to the fan-favorite The Shining which allowed director Mike Flanagan the ability to meld his love for King’s text and Kubrick’s 1980 movie into one film. Unfortunately for Warner Bros. and horror fans, Doctor Sleep wasn’t a box office success and with its dismal returns came the end of a potential new cinematic universe. WB had considered mining The Shining text into its own pocket of feature films, one of which would have been a prequel about the construction of The Overlook Hotel, and now we’ve got some new details about it.
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Five years before Doctor Sleep would make it to theaters it was announced that filmmaker Mark Romanek would step onto the grounds of the Overlook for the prequel film, working from a script by former showrunner of The Walking Dead Glenn Mazzara. At the time it was said to focus on the man who developed the Overlook in the hills of Colorado at the turn of the 20th century and in a new interview Romanek delves deeper into his intention for the movie and what it would have felt like.
“It seems (it’s gone away). I mean, it’s a great script I think, it was based on a prologue to the novel that Stephen King wrote and then that prologue was cut for length,” Romanek told Collider. “And so it’s based on Stephen King. It’s not just some thing somebody made up, and it’s more of an origin story on the, almost like a Western or a wilderness story, going back to the construction and the desecration of the Indian burial grounds, and the construction of the Overlook Hotel and to its meaning to its opening night.”
The director continued, “The problem is it’s really expensive, it kind of reads like The Revenant or Heaven’s Gate or something and I think they wanted to try Doctor Sleep to see if—my impression is they wanted to see if there was this sort of Shining universe that would have financial life through them, or artistic life with the audience. And I think Doctor Sleep did just sort of okay, and given that our script is so costly, it’s a little dead in the water right now. But you never know, it’s a weird business. It’s a very good script. I’m proud of the script.”
It seems unlikely that The Overlook Hotel could make its way into production after the reception to Doctor Sleep, but Romanek’s quote that Warner Bros. was considering a “Shining universe” is true. After Doctor Sleep failed to live up to expectations at the box office it was reported that Flanagan had already been working on a follow-up, reportedly titled “Hallorann” and focusing on the chef at the Overlook Hotel who appeared in Kubrick’s film and Flanagan’s sequel.
A feature film about the character would have seemingly followed his path from young psychic to head chef at the Overlook, a journey that would be interesting to see given his many years of experience at the location despite its numerous ghastly inhabitants (most of whom he seems to be aware of). It seems unlikely that the project, or rather any of the “Shining Universe” ideas, will ever see the light of day, but we can dream and ka is a wheel after all.
