HBO Max greenlights Overlook, a spin-off of Stephen King's The Shining, from JJ Abrams' Bad Robot Productions. Abrams and Bad Robot are no strangers to the macabre universe of Stephen King; they previously collaborated with Warner Bros. Television on Castle Rock for Hulu. Castle Rock, which ran for two seasons, was an anthology show set in King's fictional Maine town of the same name, that tied in multiple characters and settings from a variety of King's work.
The Shining is one of King's most popular titles, having already been adapted into a feature film, TV mini-series, and getting a sequel novel, Dr. Sleep (which was also adapted into a feature film). The most famous adaptation of King's novel came from Stanley Kubrick in 1980 and starred Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrence. Like the book, the film follows Torrence and his family (wife, Wendy, and son, Danny) during their time as the off-season caretakers of the Overlook Hotel in Colorado. The Overlook ends up being haunted by a multitude of ghosts, including the previous caretaker who killed himself and his family. Jack is slowly driven insane, eventually trying to murder Wendy and Danny. They escape, but Jack dies. Years later, King released Dr. Sleep, which followed a grown-up Danny Torrence struggling with addiction issues and PTSD leftover from his time at the Overlook.
Deadline reports HBO Max will team up with Abrams and Bad Robot to bring Overlook to the brand new streaming service. Reportedly, the series will take an approach similar to A&E's Bates Motel, which served as a prequel to the horror film Psycho. Deadline further reports that Castle Rock co-creator/executive producer Dustin Thomason and co-executive producer Scott Brown are "in negotiations" to write the new series.
The news comes alongside two other greenlights from HBO Max for Bad Robot, including a DCEU-based series called Justice League Dark. Abrams has always been a huge King fan; he nearly directed a film adaptation of another King property, The Dark Tower. Alas, burned out from his time working on the TV series LOST, Abrams opted not to spend seven years of his life turning King's novels (there are seven in the Dark Tower series) into multiple films. However, as Bad Robot has grown over the years, it's allowed Abrams to get involved with passion projects as a producer, freeing up his time to write/direct other projects that won't be as time-consuming.
Overlook is still in the early days of development, so there aren't many details to cover. Still, the comparison to Bates Motel indicates the series would be a prequel of sorts to the events of the novel/movie. Perhaps this means the series won't feature the Torrance family at all; it could explore the previous caretaker's slow descent into madness. The series could go even further back by exploring the last days of some of the doomed guests that check-in, but never leave; both King's novel and the adaptations suggest that the Overlook Hotel has many ghosts roaming its halls. The series could also reveal more about some of the supporting characters from The Shining, such as hotel cook Dick Hallorann who displayed supernatural powers of his own.
Source: Deadline