HBO Max has decided to pass on “The Shining” spinoff series “Overlook” from J.J. Abrams, TheWrap has learned.
Warner Bros. Television — whose sister film studio Warner Bros. produced Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Shining” — and Abrams’ Bad Robot will be shopping the series elsewhere in what is considered a competitive situation among other possible platforms. The project had been in development since April 2020 with a series commitment but was not ordered to series by the WarnerMedia-owned streaming service.
Written by Dustin Thomason and Scott Brow, “Overlook” is described as a horror-thriller series “inspired by and featuring iconic characters” from the King novel. The show “explores the untold, terrifying stories of the most famous haunted hotel in American fiction.”
Abrams and Bad Robot’s head of television, Ben Stephenson, will executive produce the potential series, with Bad Robot’s EVP of television, Rachel Rusch Rich, serving as co-executive producer.
“Overlook” marks the latest collaboration between King, Bad Robot and Warner Bros. TV, as they’ve previously teamed on Apple TV+’s “Lisey’s Story” and Hulu’s “Castle Rock” and “11.22.63.”
The project was among several Bad Robot series set up at WarnerMedia, where Abrams and Katie McGrath’s production banner is under a mega overall deal.
Bad Robot continues to have a number of titles either in production, ordered or in the development stage at HBO and HBO Max, produced by Warner Bros. TV through Abrams’ WarnerMedia overall deal. Those projects include “Demimonde” (HBO, series order), “Duster” (HBO Max, series order), “Subject to Change” (HBO Max, series order), “Westworld” (HBO, Season 4 in production) and “Fledgling” (HBO, in development).
Abrams and Bad Robot also produced the Emmy-nominated “Lovecraft Country” for HBO, though that series has since been canceled after just one season.
Along with being adapted into the Jack Nicholson-led 1980 feature film by director Kubrick and later a ’90s miniseries, “The Shining” has had its King-written sequel, “Doctor Sleep,” turned into a movie as well.