About that 'Shining' prequel 'The Overlook Hotel'...

EW's King portrait, by Tyler Jacobson

Yesterday we reported a Deadline article that former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara might be writing a movie prequel to 1980 film The Shining for Warner Bros., to be titled The Overlook Hotel.

Well Entertainment Weekly called up their former pop culture columnist Stephen King (and, of course, author of The Shining novel) to see if this was even possible. See, EW correctly asks if WB, which released Kubrick's film, retains rights for additional movie adaptations -- and, specifically, rights to a section of the book that detailed the Overlook's history, but which was eventually cut from the final version.

Said King:

"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."

But King did add that he's not necessarily going to stop a film project from happening because "I'm sort of a nice guy."

And maybe that's why he's the King.

-Aaron Sagers

'Entertainment Weekly' lists super supernatural gals

She's wonder-ful, but supernatural? Courtesy DC Comics

One of the most popular entertainment news outlets just did a cool list that’s right up our dark alley. Over at Entertainment Weekly, they compiled a pretty comprehensive list of 25 Supernatural Women that takes us from the Twilight woods to magical Hogwarts.

Some of them were grouped together, such as the Powerpuff Girls, the three witches (Glinda, Theodora, and Evanora) from Disney's new Oz, the Great and Powerful, and the coven of teen spell-weavers from the 1996 film, The Craft.

It’s not like we want to choose favorites here, but with a list of 25, we will...

New 'American Horror Story: Asylum' pics

Courtesy EW

A slew of creepy American Horror Story: Asylum pics, many taken from the sneak peek vids, are showing up at Entertainment Weekly. The pics don't necessarily reveal much about the season two plotline but they continue to set the aesthetic of the show's upcoming episodes.

American Horror Story: Asylum premieres Oct. 17.

-Aaron Sagers

Anatomy of a skitter: Inside the 'Falling Skies' aliens

Hello, Skitter. Courtesy EW, TNT

Entertainment Weekly has provided Falling Skies fans with an incredibly detailed and insightful look inside the guts of invading skitters.

In the past, we've already covered some of the FX wizardy behind Falling Skies, which received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Visual Effects. The show's effects are a blend of practical and CG, and result from the work of two vfx companies, MASTERSFX - mainly handling practical effects - and Zoic Studios for the digital. EW reports the two companies have teamed up before for such shows as True Blood and Fringe.

The blend of effects allows the show to have its aliens interact at close range with actors like Noah Wyle - and allows them to feature a range of nuance creature emotions - while also making it possible for the skitters to scale walls and perform other feats.

The story reveals some fun facts such as the use of a video camera and radios inside the skitter mask's head so performers like Keith Arbuthnot, who is in the suit, can see at skitter eye level and hear what's happening. We also see a bit of the harness system (different harness, 2nd Mass fans!) that allows Arbuthnot to handle the weight of the alien legs. There are also 12 individual servos inside the alien head to control movement. The factory for the harnesses, which are props that replaced later with a CG version, was inspired by executive producer Steven Spielberg's mention of the 1959 horror flick The Tingler.

Meanwhile, the large mech characters are all CG while the warrior uber-alien overlords are motion-capture with a performer in the effects studio acting out to match the actor's movements on set. Their behavior and movements were inspired by regal soldiers in Game of Thrones and Kurosawa films.

Falling Skies airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on TNT.

-Aaron Sagers