Former 'Walking Dead' showrunner Mazzara writing 'Shining' prequel - and it might be cool

Former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara is checking into The Overlook Hotel, reports Deadline. Mazzara, who was dismissed from TWD in December, is writing a prequel to the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film The Shining for Warner Bros.

Although my fanboy eyebrow (my fanbrow?) arches skeptically anytime I hear about a remake, reboot, re-imagining or long dormany prequel, this kind of makes sense. Long before the Torrance family moved into the Overlook for a really bad winter, the hotel had a notorious history. In Stephen King's 1977 novel alone, the hotel was the site of illnesses, tragic deaths, the murder-suicide of a family, gangland-style murders, ghost children, snakelike fire hoses, zombie wasps, evil topiaries and, oh yeah, is kind of an extension of Hell.

Mazzara could use a prequel to play with a lot of this material that never made it into Kubrick's film (which also had a funky masquerade swinger party and Indian burial ground)...

Stephen King reveals details about 'The Shining' sequel 'Doctor Sleep'

Courtesy EW

Have you ever wondered what happened to little Danny Torrance after his traumatic stay at The Overlook Hotel? Did he grow up to be a happy and well-adjusted young man? Did he inherit his father’s drinking problem? In a recent interview over at Entertainment Weekly, horror master Stephen King talks about the anticipated sequel to The Shining.

Although King has chatted about the project before, and even read a short excerpt of the book last year, this is the most he's opened up about the sequel, titled Doctor Sleep. The book takes us into the solitary world of a middle-aged "Dan Torrance." He uses his shining ability to comfort the dying in the hospice in which he is employed, but some of the demons from his past are still haunting him.

King expressed that he has often wondered what happened to Danny and even joked that he married Charlie McGee from Firestarter. In the interview, he talks about when and why he finally decided to write this sequel (due out Sept. 24) and some of his own fears. Most revealing is that he's trying to make his work quite scary, and is doing it with a kid character and it even sounds like we'll see Danny returning to the site of the Overlook.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Stephen King's 'The Shining' sequel gets release date

Courtesy
Stephenking.com

Just shy of one year since he read an excerpt at George Mason University in Washington, D.C., Stephen King has confirmed on his website that his sequel to The Shining would be released Sept. 24, 2013.

Titled Doctor Sleep, the book follows an adult Danny Torrance, who works in hospice care, and his run-ins with a traveling group of psychic vampires called "The Tribe."

-Aaron Sagers