So, which would you rather see at this point, because at least one of them is coming: the story of Jack Torrance before the events at the Overlook Hotel or what happens to Danny afterward? If your answer is “neither,” well too bad, because at least one of these is getting made. Maybe both.
The LA Times reports that Warner Bros. is looking at turning the wheels on a prequel to Stanley Kubrick‘s “The Shining.” While a studio spokesperson insists it’s not officially in development (yet), WB is apparently already reaching out to Laeta Kalogridis (“Avatar,” “Shutter Island“), Bradley Fischer (“Black Swan,” “Zodiac“) and James Vanderbilt (“Zodiac,” “The Amazing Spider-Man“) to come up with a concept.
Meanwhile, Stephen King himself has penned “Doctor Sleep,” a sequel that will drop in bookstores next year on January 15, 2013. As of yet, the movie rights haven’t been optioned but we figure it’s only a matter of time at this point. The kind-of-insane plot catches up with Danny, now in his middle age, who must help save tween Abra from a muderous tribe of paranormals (we’re not kidding) called The True Knot who are living off the “steam” produced when they torture children who can “shine.” Good Lord. You can read the full synopsis below.
Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special twelve-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and tween Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death.
Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”
Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted readers of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.
Both of these ideas sound horrible (and good luck to whoever has to fill Jack Nicholson‘s shoes in the prequel) but odds are probably one of these will get made. King famously hated Kubrick’s film and probably won’t be thrilled to hear WB will continue to riff on his book (and it does raise some interesting rights questions), but either scenario is about as bad as making a “Raging Bull II“….oh wait….