‘The Shining’ Prequel Could Be In The Works

Warner Bros. is reportedly considering the idea of producing a prequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror classic "The Shining." Writer-producer Laeta Kalogridis and her partners Bradley Fischer and James Vanderbilt have allegedly been contacted by the film studio to create a film that take place before Jack Torrance terrorized his family at the Overlook Hotel.

The potential film would take place before the winter the Torrance family spent stranded in a haunted hotel, reports the LA Times. A Warner Bros. spokesperson said that the film hasn't even reached the development stage as of July 28^.

Fans of the chilling film shouldn't get upset, even if the film does move forward in production. The LA Times noted that Kalogridis has already successfully scare audiences when she wrote for like Martin Scorsese's 2010 thriller "Shutter Island."

The hotel in "The Shining" does have an extensive background, but a story based on the Overlook could become problematic. The mystique of the hotel is one of the things that makes the original "Shining" so frightening.

"The movie is notoriously nebulous. There's no true explanation for the events going on in the hotel, no real elucidation behind that ending," said Hollywood.com. "That's what has made The Shining a lasting power."

A deeper look into the background of the Torrance family is also an issue, because the events at the Overlook were their first encounter with the paranormal. SlashFilm simply wrote "boring" at the notion of focusing on the pre-Overlook Torrance family.

While Warner Bros. is looking to go back in time, Stephen King, who wrote the novel "The Shining" that the film was based on, is working on a sequel. In May 2010 First Look reported that King was penning the new novel "Doctor Sleep."

First Looks claims that Stephen King's website posted that the story follows a now grownup Danny Torrance as he tries to save the life of a preteen girl. Danny also adopts the name Doctor Sleep after he begins working at a nursing home and provides comfort to dying patients with his shining powers.

There are no reports of Warner Bros. planning to make a film out of "Doctor Sleep." After Warner Bros. didn't take part in Stephen King's 1997 miniseries remake of "The Shining," the movie studio may not adapt King's "Shining" sequel into a film.