Upcoming Overlook (The Shining Spinoff) [HBO Max]

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J.J. Abrams has set his first three series at HBO Max.

WarnerMedia's forthcoming streaming service has handed out straight-to-series orders for Duster, The Shining offshoot Overlook and what is described as a "major" show based on DC Comics characters in the Justice League Dark universe. All three shows will be exec produced by Abrams and his wife and Bad Robot partner, Katie McGrath, and Warner Bros. TV Group.

Overlook, a spinoff of sorts based on the iconic hotel featured in Stephen King's 1977 novel and subsequent 1980 feature The Shining, features iconic characters from the horror thriller. It explores the untold, terrifying stories of the most famous haunted hotel in American fiction. The project reunites Bad Robot, King and Warner Bros. TV following Hulu anthology Castle Rock. The 10-episode drama, sources say, is being written and exec produced by Dustin Thomason and Scott Brown, who both previously worked on Castle Rock. The series has, per sources, also opened a mini writers room to get a jump on scripts during the industry-wide production shutdown.

"What an amazing start to our association with the wildly imaginative Bad Robot team under J.J. and Katie," said Kevin Reilly, chief content officer at HBO Max. "What could be better than an original J.J. idea and then Warner Bros. letting them loose on iconic IP from Stephen King and the DC Universe and to provide more must-have programming on HBO Max."

All three series will be exec produced by Abrams, Bad Robot's head of television Ben Stephenson, with the company's exec vp TV Rachel Rusch Rich serving as a co-EP. Warner Bros. International TV Distribution will handle global distribution on all three programs.

Based on the King novel, The Shining was written and directed Stanley Kubrick and starred Jack Nicholson as an aspiring writer who accepts an off-season role as the caretaker of the isolated yet historic Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies and moves in with his family. The psychological horror film follows the family's son as he can see into the hotel's terrifying past.

Warner Media's film arm previously put Overlook Hotel into development as a feature film back in 2014 with former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara having penned the script and Mark Romanek attached to direct. That was described as a prequel to The Shining and never moved beyond the development stage. A sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep — revolving around the son — was released last year from director Mike Flanagan (Netflix's Haunting of Hill House). Ewan McGregor starred as the grown-up son.

For Bad Robot, meanwhile, Overlook, Duster and the JLD show are the first three series to stem from the company's newest overall deal with Warners. The sweeping deal, which was in the works for more than a year with other media titans pursuing Abrams and company, brings Bad Robot's film and TV work under the same roof for the first time. All told, this is Bad Robot's latest streaming series and joins Apple's Lisey's Story, Little Voice and My Glory Was I Had Such Friends as well as Hulu's Castle Rock, with the latter awaiting word on its future. The company also exec produces HBO's Westworld and the premium cable network's forthcoming Lovecraft Country and Demimonde, with the latter having been created by Abrams.

HBO Max is poised to launch at a date to be determined in May. The platform will be the exclusive streaming home for libraries of Friends and The Big Bang Theory as well as originals from across the Warner Media brand including HBO, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and more. The service, which will cost $15 a month, will be home to scripted originals including new takes on Dune, Gossip Girl, The Boondocks, Gremlins, Grease and Green Lantern as the platform leans hard into IP.

via The Hollywood Reporter
 
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