Former The Walking Dead Showrunner Glen Mazzara Is Writing a Prequel to The Shining. Yes, Really.

Glen Mazzara might’ve found himself out of a job when he was canned as The Walking Dead‘s showrunner last December, but he’s gotten back on his feet, having just landed a nice, easy, pressure-free gig.

Oh, I’m sorry, what? He’s in talks to write a prequel to The Shining, one of the most beloved horror movies of all time?

He does like challenges, doesn’t he?

Not much is known about The Overlook Hotel, the prequel in question, save that Mazzara is in talks to write it and that it’s being developed by Warner Bros.. The book The Shining was written by Stephen King, of course, who didn’t like the changes Stanley Kubrick made for the movie version. While King has written a sequel to The Shining that comes out later this year, he has not written a prequel, and has even said some less-than-positive things about a prequel in the past.

So, assuming Mazzara signs on, it looks like he’ll be writing his own story, not an adaptation of someone else’s. That could be good news: The rumor mill around the time Mazzara was fired from The Walking Dead pointed the finger at least partially at original creator Robert Kirkman, who was said to be too controlling of the show. Perhaps Mazzara, freed to do his own thing, could write a good The Shining prequel. Your mileage may vary.

That said… look, I generally hate it when people say “Do we really need [X movie]? Did anyone ask for it?,” because no, we do not need most movies—that is not the point of them. But my inner cinephile curls up into a ball at the mention of a Stanley Kubrick prequel. It’s reflexive, brought about by the ending to Eyes Wide Shut and A.I. and the very notion that a studio would take a film by Kubrick, one of the most methodical, deliberate, obsessed-with-perfection directors ever, and decide “Hey, we’re going to hire some people to make a prequel to this!”

I’ll have to let go of that, I suppose. Because The Overlook Hotel could work; it makes no sense to dismiss a movie this early on. As long as Mazzara tries to write it as a solid horror movie and not a “Kubrick movie”—which I can’t imagine he wouldn’t—I will try and stop myself from cringing every time someone mentions it.

(via: Deadline)

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