Minor Axis
Well-Known Member
I loved the book, loved the movie. It's the 30th anniversary of the movie and I read an interesting article in The Atlantic Magazine. If you are a fan you might find some of these tidbits interesting.
* Steven King was inspired to write the story after staying in Room 217 at the Stanley Hotel in the Rocky Mountains. This hotel is reported to be haunted, but who knows? I have stayed at so called "haunted hotels" and never saw a thing, but that does not mean they could not be haunted.
* King disliked Stanley Kubrick's movie interpretation calling it a "Cadillac without an engine". He also did not like Jack Nicholson in the lead roll.
* King disliked the movie so much, that 3 years later he readapted The Shining as an ABC miniseries. It stared Steven Webber of Wings, the tv show. Although it was more faithful to the book, nobody seems to care about that version. Actually for the sake of the story, I wish Kubrick had stuck with the boiler-about-to-blow-up scenario, but I admit Kubrick's version was just as elegant.
* Kubrick did not like the approach to the Stanley Hotel and instead decided to film the movie exteriors at the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, Oregon. And it is not reported as haunted.
* Because Kubrick did not feel that CGI could not adequately show topiaries coming to life he decided to go with a hedge maze instead. The snowy hedge maze was mostly a matte painting. The rest was constructed on an airfield near Elstree studios, by weaving branches to chicken wire mounted on empty plywood boxes. The snow consisted of 900 tons of salt and crushed Styrofoam.
* While filming Dumb and Dumber, Jim Carrey asked to stay in Room 217 at the Stanley... and then checked out 3 hours later. Supposedly he will not talk about it.
* Finally most people including myself are disappointed to discover that all of the interior shots were filmed at neither location, but at a studio in England. I could have sworn that lobby where Jack sat typing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" was the lobby of a real hotel... For myself this is one of the shockers of the movie when you realize Jack has gone over the edge.
* For more Shining trivia see this IMDB Trivia Link.
* Steven King was inspired to write the story after staying in Room 217 at the Stanley Hotel in the Rocky Mountains. This hotel is reported to be haunted, but who knows? I have stayed at so called "haunted hotels" and never saw a thing, but that does not mean they could not be haunted.
* King disliked Stanley Kubrick's movie interpretation calling it a "Cadillac without an engine". He also did not like Jack Nicholson in the lead roll.
* King disliked the movie so much, that 3 years later he readapted The Shining as an ABC miniseries. It stared Steven Webber of Wings, the tv show. Although it was more faithful to the book, nobody seems to care about that version. Actually for the sake of the story, I wish Kubrick had stuck with the boiler-about-to-blow-up scenario, but I admit Kubrick's version was just as elegant.
* Kubrick did not like the approach to the Stanley Hotel and instead decided to film the movie exteriors at the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, Oregon. And it is not reported as haunted.
* Because Kubrick did not feel that CGI could not adequately show topiaries coming to life he decided to go with a hedge maze instead. The snowy hedge maze was mostly a matte painting. The rest was constructed on an airfield near Elstree studios, by weaving branches to chicken wire mounted on empty plywood boxes. The snow consisted of 900 tons of salt and crushed Styrofoam.
* While filming Dumb and Dumber, Jim Carrey asked to stay in Room 217 at the Stanley... and then checked out 3 hours later. Supposedly he will not talk about it.
* Finally most people including myself are disappointed to discover that all of the interior shots were filmed at neither location, but at a studio in England. I could have sworn that lobby where Jack sat typing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" was the lobby of a real hotel... For myself this is one of the shockers of the movie when you realize Jack has gone over the edge.
* For more Shining trivia see this IMDB Trivia Link.
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