Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is simply one of the greatest horror films ever made. Much like horror classics The Exorcist and Jaws, it’s a film that should never, ever be remade, because why would you? Sadly, it already was kind of remade, in a cheap television version in the mid nineties. Which yes, was closer to Stephen King’s original novel, but still totally sucked. But being a TV version I can kind of ignore its existence and delete it from my memory banks like I recently did with the television version of Rosemary’s Baby.

Last year it was announced that Warner Bros was instead planning a prequel to Kubrick’s film called Overlook Hotel, and that former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara had been hired to write the script. And we hadn’t heard anything else about the project until now, as the guys at the Schmoes Know claim that Gravity director Alfonso Cuarón is who the studio wants to direct. This comes hot on the heels of another rumor that says the studio wants him to direct the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. 

The question now is, coming off a powerhouse film like Gravity, would Cuarón want to go back and make prequels to other people’s films? Hasn’t Gravity given him license to go off and do whatever he wants now? Well, unless whatever he wants to do next is a small budget film, probably not. Warner Bros is a studio that loves being in business with certain creative types — Christopher Nolan is a perfect example. Rumor has it that Inception was greenlit partially on the promise that he would return to complete his Dark Knight trilogy, which he did. If Cuarón wants to make another potentially risky big budget tentpole that’s (gasp!) not based on an existing property, Warner Bros might first nail him down to get either Overlook Hotel or Fantastic Beasts off the ground.

So just what would Overlook Hotel be about anyway? Would the movie focus on the Delbert Grady, the caretaker who killed his own family (including those creepy-ass twins), a decade before Jack Torrance got the job? Or could it be a totally different storyline? The Grady story would almost be beat-for-beat the same story as Jack Torrance’s, so there might be a feeling of “been there, done that” in tackling that one. I think Cuarón should make a prequel explaining just what was up  with that fat dude in the bear suit who looks like he was about to orally service some old guy. Seriously, what the hell was going on in that scene?? If the prequel is all about explaining that, I’m there on day one.