‘The Overlook Hotel’: Mark Romanek Provides Info On His Abandoned ‘Shining’ Prequel
HBO Max is moving forward withOverlook, a TV series spun-off fromThe Shining. But at one point we could’ve had a completely different piece of entertainment bearing theOverlookname. That wasThe Overlook Hotel, aShiningprequel that was supposed to be directed byMark Romanek(One Hour Photo) and written byGlen Mazzara. The script for that film exists and even got the blessing of Stephen King himself, but it ultimately never came together. In a new interview, Romanek talks about what happened.
WhileOverlookseems to be a sure thing atHBO Max, we mustn’t forget aboutThe Overlook Hotel, Mark Romanek’s now-dead prequel toThe Shining. The project was announced back in 2013, withWalking Deadwriter Glen Mazzara penning the screenplay (you may read a review of Mazzara’s script published in 2014here). So what happened?
Speaking withComic Book, Romanek says: “They weren’t confident enough that there was going to be this, what the studios would call a ‘Shining universe’ that they were going to start building, to justify the cost. And the film is just, by nature of the story building, this massive hotel and creating a period piece, and it seemed too costly to them. And that was really the thing that sort of killed it, unfortunately.”
The Overlook Hotelwas a true prequel, focusing on the building of the haunted hotel back in the early 1900s. And the film drew on Stephen King’s own work, too. “There was a prologue that Stephen King wrote for the novel originally when it was published in 1977, and it was cut for length,” Romanek says. “So there’s a brief prologue that he wrote that just is fascinating material and a fascinating basis for a new story.”
And best of all, King liked the script. As Romanek explains:
“We got the blessing from Stephen King, the script was written, and then I took it upon myself to elaborately rewrite that script. And what it finally got down to was, really, an origin story. It was more like a wilderness tale set in the very early twentieth century. I can’t remember the name of the character that built the hotel now, but it’s the desecration of the Indian burial ground and the construction of the Overlook Hotel in the deep wilderness in 1910, and it builds to the grand opening of the hotel. It was epic, and I think the problem really was just the budget.”
While Romanek’s film never happened, Warner Bros. did try to launch aShininguniverse withDoctor Sleep, the official sequel toThe Shining. Sadly, that film underperformed at the box office, and apparently killed any dreams of moreShining-based films. At least for now.
