Gravity” helmer Alfonso Cuaron is apparently earmarked to serve behind the lens of a prequel to horror classic “The Shining”. According to a recent report by Schmoes Know, the helmer will take charge of the project entitled “The Overlook Hotel”. The project is undertaken by writer Glen Mazzara (one-time showrunner of The Walking Dead), with Laeta Kalogridis (“Shutter Island”), Bradley Fischer (“Black Swan”), and James Vanderbilt (“Zodiac”) who will serve as producers.

Here's Johnny!

Here’s Johnny!

The Jack Nicholson 1980’s classic is still one of the best movies produced in the genre. For those of you not familiar with the premise of the film, check out the synopsis courtesy of Stephenking.com:

“Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their young son Danny move into the Overlook Hotel, where Jack has been hired as the winter caretaker. Cut off from civilization for months, Jack hopes to battle alcoholism and uncontrolled rage while writing a play. Evil forces residing in the Overlook – which has a long and violent history – covet young Danny for his precognitive powers and exploit Jack’s weaknesses to try to claim the boy.”

Check out the classic trailer

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, King spoke of the plans for the prequel but expressed doubts because the studio may not have the rights to move forward:

“There’s a real question about whether or not they have the rights to ‘Before the Play’, which was the prologue cut from the book – because the epilogue to the book was called ‘After the Play.’ So they were bookends, and there was really scary stuff in that prologue that wouldn’t make a bad movie. Am I eager to see that happen? No I am not.”

“And there’s some real question about what rights Warner Bros. does still have. ‘The Shining’ is such an old book now that the copyright comes back to me. Arguably, the film rights lapse – so we’ll see. We’re looking into that.”

“I’m not saying I would put a stop to the project, because I’m sort of a nice guy. When I was a kid, my mother said, ‘Stephen if you were a girl, you’d always be pregnant.’ I have a tendency to let people develop things. I’m always curious to see what will happen. But you know what? I would be just as happy if it didn’t happen.”