We already know that Stephen King is busy writing a sequel to his 1977 novel The Shining entitled Doctor Sleep, which is set to follow the adult Danny Torrance as he battles a tribe of vampires, but now comes word that Warner Bros. is exploring the possibility of developing a prequel to Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1980 screen adaptation and has tapped Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Shutter Island), Bradley Fischer (Zodiac, Black Swan) and James Vanderbilt (The Losers, The Amazing Spider-Man) to serve as producers on the proposed project.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the prequel is likely to explore “what happened before Jack Torrance (of course played memorably onscreen by Jack Nicholson), his wife and their psychic son arrived at the haunted retreat where Torrance soon descends into violent madness.” Presumably, that means the focus would shift from the Torrance family to the Overlook Hotel itself, which has a bit of a troubled history when it comes to caretakers.
Although the studio has brought in Kalogridis, Fischer and Vanderbilt to craft an idea for the prequel, an unnamed WB spokesman stresses that the project is “in a very early stage and not even formally in development.” Let’s hope it stays that way.
Originally published July 29, 2012. Updated December 6, 2019.
