it's safe to say that if it weren't for the adaptations Stephen King would not
be the icon that he is today love him or hate him he had made an incredible
career out of writing fiction that could be translated to on-screen success even
if you have never read a Stephen King book you know his stories it misery and
The Shining perhaps one of his most personal stories The Shining was an
adaptation he might not have been prepared to leave to another artist his
hands if you let someone else adapt your work they might make it better and
therefore the story itself might change ownership this is the story about the
adaptation of The Shining and Stephen King struggled to reaffirm what was
originally his creation a haunting struggle that has lasted nearly 40 years
The Shining was the first book the Stephen King wrote where he was
considered financially stable on top of his earnings from his previous novels
Carey and Salem's Lot he had received a multi book deal from publisher Doubleday
with pressure off of his shoulders King decided to take a trip to Boulder
Colorado in 1974 to take on a short residency it was there during the
off-season Stephen King and his family spent one night at the Stanley Hotel
King had been working on a story called dark shine about a boy with psychic
abilities in an amusement park but he preferred a setting that was more
isolating and the hotel served as the inspiration the King family found
themselves as the only guess in the 142 room colonial Hotel King had a dream
that night about his son running through the corridor screaming being chased by a
fire hose he woke up lit a cigarette looked out the window at the Rockies and
by the time the cigarette was done the book was in his mind
the first draft of the shining took four months to write and was published on
January 28 1977 The Shining was Stephen King's confession as a young father he
felt a lot of anger towards his children like his character Jack Torrance an
alcoholic who had recently broken his son's arms Stephen King was feeling a
lot of guilt for his poor parenting during those early years as a father and
a struggling writer he poured all of it into the shining as he puts it he was
getting it out of his system at its roots Stephen King's The Shining was
about a family disintegrating his worst fear however what Stanley Kubrick had in
mind was a bit different hung over and shaving King received a call from
Stanley Kubrick one morning saying that he wanted to adopt the shining
immediately Kubrick star rambling about his philosophy about ghosts and how
every ghost story is an optimistic story at this point
Kubrick had nearly three decades of experience in the industry and many of
his finest films were linked with the literary work rather through adaptation
or written concurrently Lolita released in 1962 was based on the novel by
Vladimir Nabokov dr. Strangelove in 1964 was based on the book called Red Alert
by Peter George 2001 a Space Odyssey was released in 1968 which was followed by a
novel by arthur c clarke a Clockwork Orange released in 1971 was based on the
novel by Anthony Burgess and Barry Lyndon released in 1975 was based on a
novel by William Makepeace Thackeray it was easy to see how King was flattered
to have Kubrick approached him wanting to adapt his work Kubrick had developed
a fascination with ESP and paranormal activities and when he received the
manuscript for the shining from John Callie an executive of Warner Brothers
he was excited to find that the story had a great balance of psychological and
supernatural he wanted the audience to as
our supernatural things even happening or as Jack Torrance just crazy
Kubrick prefer adapting a story as opposed to writing an original piece
because he used that feeling he got when reading a story for the first time as a
yardstick for his decision-making as he directed the movie during this time
Kubrick wasn't particularly interested in making a horror movie many thought
that he would be as he was known to hop around different genres
it was rather there were two stories on his mind
one was Stephen King's The Shining and the other was Diane Johnson's the shadow
knows Kubrick was a particular artist and he ended up choosing to do the
shining but he hired Johnson to write the script for it rather than pursuing
the shadow knows even though she had never written a script before Stephen
King on the other hand had written a script for the movie but allegedly
Kubrick never even read it after reading the initial manuscript for The Shining
and even though he appreciates the story he found Kings writing to be weak
Kubrick called up Johnson and proposed a meeting as he had been known to do with
other writers and in the meeting he offered her the job of writing the
manuscript for The Shining so she took it in about 11 weeks working with
Stanley Kubrick Diane Johnson wrote the script the movie's initial release was
on May 23rd 1980 and it received mixed reviews the common criticism was that
the film was too slow-moving for a horror and many found that the
characters were hard to relate to despite the slow start The Shining which
cost nineteen million dollars to make ended up earning a profit with a
domestic gross of over forty four million dollars yet The Shining is one
of the few Kubrick films that failed to earn a single nomination for the Oscars
or the Golden Globes still the toughest critic was perhaps the author of the
source material himself at first King gave a fair critique of the movie
famously saying that there's a lot to like about it
it's a great big beautiful Cadillac with no motor inside you could sit in it you
can enjoy the smell of the leather upholstery the only thing you can't do
is drive it anywhere so I would do everything different the real problem is
that crew brick set out to make a horror picture with no apparent understanding
of the genre everything about it screams that from beginning to end from plot
decision to the final scene which has been used before on The Twilight Zone
Kubrick didn't care too much about what King said he had his reasons for the
changes he made feeling that King spent too much time focusing on the characters
background or as he would put it overcompensating for King the character
arc was a most important factor of a story it was his personal tale after all
and Kubrick dismissed all of that in the film King felt that the Jack Torrence
character was OneNote he was always crazy but perhaps the most critical
change that Kubrick made to the story was the ending first he omitted all the
topiaries that came to life in the novel saying that due to the special effects
of the era it simply wouldn't do and would have most likely come across as
hokey the second change was how Jack Torrance died spoiler alert in the novel
it was the explosion of an aging boiler that caused the death of the main
character while in the movie Jack freezes to death outside King said it
best the book is hot and the movie is cold the book ends in fire and the movie
in ice finally the last shot of the movie was a framed picture years ago a
celebration at the Overlook Hotel at the center we see Jack Torrance smiling this
sparked the theory that Jack was a reincarnation of an employee at the
Overlook and he was destined and doomed to be trapped in the hotel forever
this was the twilight zone moment that king referenced in his criticism while
it might have seemed like Kubrick had ultimately disrespected King's original
work one can actually see many moments in the movie where he was loyal to
source material the famous ballroom scene where Jack sits in the bar
desperate for a drink and then encounters a phantom barkeeper named
Lloyd is perhaps the most loyal to the novel for me rarely Khanum novel make my
skin crawl but remembering how I felt reading that
sequence with Danny Torrance leading up to that bathtub scene then saying come
to life so effectively on-screen is perhaps the moment that linked both
novel and film to very different experiences one chilling visceral effect
even though Kubrick's The Shining didn't get the recognition it deserved
upon its release over time it gained critical acclaim and many even deemed it
to be his finest work while King and Kubrick continued on with their careers
The Shining entered the heights of his pop culture relevancy from the highly
quoted here's Johnny to the words Red Rum scribbled on the
walls to the iconic scene of the twin girls in the hallway all visuals that
Kubrick immortalized king's ownership of the shining had faded after gaining some
momentum and television with the four-part miniseries of what I
considered his masterpiece The Stand Stephen King jumped on the opportunity
to reclaim one of his most precious work The Shining essentially he wanted to fix
everything that Kubrick did wrong the script for the three-part series was
written exclusively by King and he wanted to stay as far removed from
Kubrick's creation as possible at times he even rewrote scenes which Kubrick had
used from the original novel such as the famous ballroom scene anything that can
be done to separate King from Kubrick King did on April 27th 1997 The Shining
miniseries was released a tepid response while some critics found it to be a
creepy suspense in a drawn-out experience many more found it inferior
to Kubrick's adaptation yes King had more attention focus on
alcoholism the struggle with work-life balance and the interpersonal
relationship of a family but it lacked that eeriness that Kubrick was able to
incorporate with aesthetics best shown by the wide hallways that seemed both to
be endless and suffocating all that represented the haunting of the hotel
this was lost in Kings version where he had chosen to use the spark of his
original inspiration the Stanley Hotel as the design simply put play side by
side Kubrick's version was deemed scarier and when it came to a horror
story that was the key criteria King sought Redemption and had loss on March
7th 1999 Stanley Kubrick died in his sleep from a heart attack at his home in
child with buried Manor United Kingdom a few months later on June 19 1999 Stephen
King was the victim of a life-threatening car accident while
walking on the shoulder of a road and lovo Maine Stephen King survived but the
feud between the two artists was over however the story of The Shining was not
during a promotional tour for Stephen King's novel under the dome in 2009 King
brought up a concept for a sequel a story which will follow an adult Danny
Torrance as he navigates the world with his paranormal powers and his haunting
pass King made a poll on his official website asking his fans which story they
would want to read next the sequel to The Shining or another installment in
his Dark Tower series the poll lasted one month and in the end the shining
sequel which will be titled dr. sleep beat out the wind through the keyhole
the Dark Tower prequel by a mere 49 votes on September 24 2013
dr. sleep was published in 2014 Warner Brothers pictures acquired the right to
the dr. sleep adaptation it took over three years to secure the budget and
only when the studio saw success with the remake of the Stephen King classic
it's in 2017 that they got the green light to move forward with dr. sleep
Mike Flanagan creator of the haunting of Hill House on Netflix signed on to
direct the sequel that as he stated would be a three-way connection between
Stephen King's The Shining Stanley Kubrick's adaptation and Stephen King's
dr. sleep dr. sleep was a story written completely removed from what Kubrick had
created so one of the earliest conversation that Flanagan had with King
was getting his blessing to combine the world perhaps a true test of Kings
character was accepting that Kubrick's film had become the undisputed
representation of the shining it's what the world recognized the conversation
between Flanagan and King went well and King gave his encouragement the movie is
an adaptation of King's work but it will exist in the same Cinematic Universe as
Kubrick's film dr. sleep is expected to be released on November 8 2019 starring
Ewan McGregor in the role of Dan Torrance and with that there is finally
peace on the shining front what is your favorite version of the shining and is
there a movie based on a book that you're curious about let me know in the
comments below and don't forget to subscribe for more videos
on the journeys of writers and creators