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STANLEY-KUBRICK

‘The Shining’ Prequel ‘The Overlook Hotel’ Moves Forward!!!

Movies
Posted by EvanDickson on April 11, 2013 @ 2:04pm
Category: Movies / News

Back in July, we featured this blurb from The LA Times, “ “Warner Bros.is quietly exploring the possibility of a prequel to “The Shining,” The studio has solicited the involvement of Hollywood writer-producer Laeta Kalogridis and her partners Bradley Fischer and James Vanderbilt to craft a new take as producers, according to a person familiar with the project who was not authorized to talk about it publicly… The film would focus on what happened before Jack Torrance (of course played memorably onscreen by Jack Nicholson), his wife and their psychic son arrived at the haunted retreat where Torrance soon descends into violent madness. ”

Turns out they were dead-on. It’s been announced today that former “Walking Dead” showrunner Glen Mazzara is the likely candidate to write Overlook Hotel for the studio. Per Deadline, “Glen Mazzara, who ran AMC’s smash hit series The Walking Dead for the past several seasons, will now focus on ghosts. He’s in talks to write The Overlook Hotel, a prequel to the Stanley Kubrick-directed The Shining, based on the Stephen King novel.”

Personally, if this has to happen, I dig the idea of them doing a story about the hotel rather than a Torrance family origin story. What about you?

Exclusive

[Interview] Talking Theories And Conspiracies With ‘Room 237′ Director Rodney Ascher

Movies
Posted by EvanDickson on March 28, 2013 @ 4:00pm
Category: Movies / Exclusives

Fans of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining won’t want to miss the wild theory infused documentary Room 237. IFC Films releases it tomorrow, March 29th at IFC Center and Elinor Bunim Monroe Film Center in New York City followed by a national rollout. The film will simultaneously be available on Cable VOD, iTunes and other digital outlets (Sundance Now, Amazon Streaming, XBOX and more).

There’s a host of great and interesting stuff in the film if you’re a fan, and director Rodney Ascher does a great job of laying out the various theories of the people he interviewed for the project in a way that the audience is primed to actually consider them rather than reject them outright. I sat down with him a few weeks ago and we discussed his methodology and how far he found himself being invested in these various trains of thought.

“After the box office failure of Barry Lyndon, Stanley Kubrick decided to embark on a project that might have more commercial appeal. The Shining, Stephen King’s biggest critical and commercial success yet, seemed like a perfect vehicle. After an arduous production, Kubrick’s film received a wide release in the summer of 1980; the reviews were mixed, but the box office, after a slow start, eventually picked up. End of story? Hardly. In the 30 years since the film’s release, a considerable cult of Shining devotees has emerged, fans who claim to have decoded the film’s secret messages addressing everything from the genocide of Native Americans to a range of government conspiracies. Rodney Ascher’s wry and provocative Room 237 fuses fact and fiction through interviews with cultists and scholars, creating a kaleidoscopic deconstruction of Kubrick’s still-controversial classic.”

Head inside for the interview! READ MORE

It’s The Bloody Trailer For IFC’s ‘The Shining’ Conspiracy Doc ‘Room 237′!!

Movies
Posted by MrDisgusting on February 08, 2013 @ 1:08pm
Category: Movies / Trailers

Fans of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining won’t want to miss the conspiracy thriller doc Room 237, releasing via IFC Films on March 29 at IFC Center and Elinor Bunim Monroe Film Center in New York City followed by a national rollout. The film will simultaneously be available on Cable VOD, iTunes and other digital outlets (Sundance Now, Amazon Streaming, XBOX and more).

The trailer has finally been released, which gives you a taste of the conspiracy theories surrounding Kubrick’s classic adaptation of Stephen King’s novella. Since its premiere at Sundance, Room 237 had been a festival sensation at Cannes, Toronto, New York, Chicago, AFI and Fantastic Fest. The film also won the IDA Documentary Award for Best Editing.

[Random Cool] Check Out These Amazing Rejected Posters For ‘The Shining’!!!

Movies
Posted by EvanDickson on December 14, 2012 @ 1:31pm
Category: Movies / Images

There’s currently a Stanley Kubrick exhibit at LACMA that is by all accounts stunning (ie I need to get off my ass and see it). One of the displays centers around rejected posters for the his 1980 film The Shining. It’s one of my favorite horror films and I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite Kubrick film (that standing changes from time to time). One of the coolest bits from it seems to be this set of rejected posters from Saul Bass – you can even read what looks to be Kubrick’s handwritten notes as to why he didn’t feel they worked.

Per The Fox Is Black (whom these posters are from), “One of the coolest parts, especially for a designer like myself, was these sketches by Saul Bass for the film poster of The Shining. Previously I had no idea that Saul Bass had created the original poster (which you can see at the top) so this was a really cool surprise. I’ve read online that Kubrick made Bass go through at least 300 versions of the poster until finally ending on the extremely alien looking version we now know.”

Head inside to check out a sampling. It really is worthwhile. READ MORE

Silent_Night_Banner_Malcolm_McDowell_12_06_12

Exclusive

[Interview] Malcolm McDowell Talks About The “Unpretentious Fun” Of ‘Silent Night’, Revisiting Stanley Kubrick

Movies
Posted by EvanDickson on December 07, 2012 @ 9:00am
Category: Movies / Exclusives

After hitting theaters last Friday, Silent Night is now available everywhere as a Blu-ray/DVD (or just as DVD if that’s the way you like it). The film, directed by Steven C. Miller (Automaton Transfusion, Under the Bed, The Aggression Scale), is a loose remake of the horror classic Silent Night, Deadly Night. The cast includes Malcolm McDowell (Rob Zombie’s Halloween, A Clockwork Orange), Jaime King (Sin City, My Bloody Valentine 3D), Donal Logue (Shark Night 3D, Blade), Lisa Marie (Sleepy Hollow), Brendan Fehr (Final Destination, X-Men First Class), and Ellen Wong (Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World).

I recently hopped on the phone with McDowell and we talked about his approach to the role and working with director Steven C. Miller. We also spoke about his classic collaboration with Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange.

In the film, “McDowell and King star as a small-town sheriff and deputy on the hunt for a murderous Santa Claus terrorizing their community on Christmas Eve. But with the streets full of Santas for the annual Christmas parade, the killer is hiding in plain sight. He’s made his list, checked it twice, and the naughty are going to pay with their lives.”

Head inside to check out the interview! READ MORE

[Halloween Treat] ‘The Shining’ Edition! Trading Cards And The REAL Finale!

Movies
Posted by MrDisgusting on October 23, 2012 @ 7:00pm
Category: Movies / News

We have only one week until Halloween so I bet drop filling your bags with a few more treats!

This afternoon’s edition focuses on Stanley Kubrick’s legendary 1980 The Shining, in which a family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father (Jack Nicholson) into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

A bit of fun to kick off the post as we’ve added some faux 1980′s inspired trading cards created by blog site Maninthewarmestplacetohide. See the Grady Twins, the Sno-Cat, and a decomposed old woman!

In more interesting news, at the end of the film you’ll see a photo of Jack Torrance with the entire dinner party from years past. The Overlook Hotel has shared the original, unaltered period photo into which actor Jack Nicholson was composited to create the iconic photograph seen in the final shots of The Shining! According to the site, these images were found in a book entitled “The Complete Airbrush and Photo-Retouching Manual,” which was originally published in 1985. The author of the book was the retouching artist responsible for creating the composited image. READ MORE

Weird! Warner Brothers Is Entertaining The Idea Of A ‘Shining’ Prequel

Movies
Posted by EvanDickson on July 29, 2012 @ 10:33am
Category: Movies / News

The Shining is one of my all time favorite horror movies. Actually it’s one of my all time favorite movies, period. No qualifier needed. That being said… I’m not entirely sure how much I need or want a prequel. But we may be getting one regardless.

Per The LA Times, “Warner Bros.is quietly exploring the possibility of a prequel to “The Shining,” the 1980 Stanley Kubrick chillfest that many fans regard as the scariest movie of all time. The studio has solicited the involvement of Hollywood writer-producer Laeta Kalogridis and her partners Bradley Fischer and James Vanderbilt to craft a new take as producers, according to a person familiar with the project who was not authorized to talk about it publicly… The film would focus on what happened before Jack Torrance (of course played memorably onscreen by Jack Nicholson), his wife and their psychic son arrived at the haunted retreat where Torrance soon descends into violent madness. A WB spokeswoman cautioned that any ‘Shining’ prequel was in a very early stage and not even formally in development.”

Now, that sort of leaves open two possibilites. The first would be that the prequel explores what was happening with the Torrance family beforehand. I’m not interested in that at all. I feel like their backstory in Kubrick’s film is handled perfectly. The second possibility – and from the above paragraph, the more likely one – would be that it explores the origins of The Overlook Hotel. The crazy horrible stuff that had been happening there for ages. I’d certainly be more interested in that as a standalone story and, in the right hands, it could be a cool exploration as long as we’re not expecting anything as great as the 1980 film.

The LA Times article makes some interesting points about Kalogridis, but doesn’t really touch on what I think could be the most promising sign. James Vanderbilt. Sure, he wrote the new (and apparently pretty bad) Spider-Man, but he also wrote David Fincher’s Zodiac. If he ends up writing this film, lets hope he tries to bring the same sense of measured, slow-burn menace.
Either way, it’s sort of an interesting idea. But also something we shouldn’t expect too much from. There’s no better way to kill your perception of a movie than to compare it to a masterpiece. Remember Prometheus?

The Shining

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on May 23, 1980 @ 12:00am
Category:

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) gets a job as the custodian of the Overlook Hotel, in the mountains of Colorado. The place is closed down during winter, and Torrance and his family will be the only occupants of the hotel for a long while. When the snow storms block the Torrance family in the hotel, Jack’s son Danny – who has some clairvoyance and telepathy powers – discovers that the hotel is haunted and that the spirits are slowly driving Jack crazy. When Jack meets the ghost of Mr. Grady, the former custodian of the hotel who murdered his wife and his two daughters, things begin to get really nasty…