Glen Mazzara revealed plot details from his script for The Overlook Hotel, a canceled prequel to Stephen King’s The Shining and Stanley Kubrick’s famous 1980 adaptation of the novel. The proposed prequel has been repeatedly put on hold since it was revealed in 2013 that a script was being written by Mazzara, whose past work includes writing and production on The Walking Dead and The Shield.
The Overlook Hotel was based on an unpublished prologue from King’s original novel, titled “Before the Play,” which outlined the history of The Overlook leading up to its occupation by Jack, Wendy and Danny Torrance in The Shining. Despite interest in the project over the years since its reveal, Warner Bros. put the film on hold after Dr. Sleep, an adaptation of King’s own sequel, underperformed at the box office despite critical praise.
In a new interview with Bloody Disgusting, Mazzara goes into more detail about his script and why he believes the project hasn’t yet been greenlit. The Overlook Hotel follows Bob T. Watson, a wealthy robber-baron in the early 20th century, who sets out with his family and a full construction crew to build his dream project – a grand hotel in the Rocky Mountains. Bob’s youngest son, Richard – who appears to have the power of the shining, though not referred to as such – sees ghosts of the cannibalistic McCready party after wandering off in the woods, and this encounter begins a harrowing series of setbacks, including a torrential flood that kills almost the entire initial construction crew.
The rest of the script details a series of gruesome events during The Overlook’s early days of operation, including the tragic death of Bob’s eldest son Boyd during a botched tracheotomy, and his wife Sarah falling down a staircase and paralyzing herself after an encounter with Boyd’s ghost. Over time, with winter settling in and the remainder of the Watson family alone in the hotel, Bob follows a similar descent into madness as The Shining’s Jack Torrance, drowning his paralyzed wife in the bathtub of room 217 (changed to 237 in Kubrick’s adaptation), and attempting to murder his younger son before they both apparently die as the hotel catches on fire. In an epilogue scene, The Overlook is shown reopened and bustling under new management, with the ghosts of the Watson family now trapped as bellhops and maids – eternal servants to the hotel’s grim designs.
Throughout the interview, Mazzara discusses the challenges of staying true to both King’s novel and Kubrick’s film – an adaptation that King hates – while also attempting to create a compelling original story with entirely new characters. The difficulty of this balancing act was one of the main critiques leveled against Mike Flanagan’s Dr. Sleep film, which some believed suffered for its third-act focus on nostalgia and homage.
Recently, it was announced that HBO Max would be producing a series set in the famous hotel, led by J.J. Abrams, titled Overlook. The exact nature of the show and its similarity to Mazzara's script remain to be seen.
Source: Bloody Disgusting
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