It’s come to light that Mark Romanek is the top man on the list, and currently in negotiations, to direct THE OVERLOOK HOTEL, the prequel to Stephen King’s The Shining.
Taken from an original story by Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead showrunner), it’s based around the original prologue to that book that was cut from publication in 1977. The story is told by the first owner, Bob T. Watson, who was a robber baron (businessmen who used exploitative practices to make money) in the early 20th century. The story goes that he climbed the Colorado Rockies and wanted to build the biggest, most impressive resort hotel in America.
Despite Romanek having mostly worked around impressive music videos, he’s also directed the brilliant creepy and uncomfortably realistic ONE HOUR PHOTO starring Robin Williams in 2002, plus the deeply atmospheric NEVER LET ME GO (2010) that starred Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield. His style with those films would undoubtedly reflect Kubrick’s THE SHINING and there’s plenty of room for his own turn on events.
The only issue with such a big universe is doing it justice or at least, and I hate this term, making it his own. THE OVERLOOK HOTEL is in development and although set with a 2015 release date, may creep into 2016. Mark is also rumoured to be directing Casey Affleck in the BOSTON STRANGLER, so it seems he’s very much in demand!
Source: Variety
