A prequel to The Shining: 'Wholly unnecessary'?

Whether fans like it or not, Jack Torrance may be returning to the Overlook Hotel

In the 1980 classic The Shining, Jack Nicholson's psychotic Jack Torrance peers through a hole in the door before declaring, "Here's Johnny!"
(Image credit: AP Photo/Warner Bros. Inc)

The Shining, one of the scariest horror films of all time, may be getting a big-screen backstory. In the classic 1980 film, adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name, troubled patriarch Jack Torrance — played unforgettably by Jack Nicholson — attempts to kill his wife and psychic son while holed up in a deserted, potentially haunted hotel in the Colorado mountains. Director Stanley Kubrick's adaptation was chillingly successful, in large part because of its unanswered questions — namely, was Torrance's violent meltdown caused by the Overlook Hotel's ghosts or simply the result of an unbalanced man succumbing to cabin fever? Now, whether fans like it or not, such questions may soon be answered, as Warner Bros. "quietly explores" the possibility of a prequel. Here, a guide to what we know so far:

Is Stephen King involved?

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