A stage adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining is being developed for a 2023 West End debut, and none other than Ben Stiller (Meet The Parents, Mystery Men) is in talks to play the lead role of Jack Torrance!
Ivo van Hove (West Side Story) will lead the creative team, with Tony winner Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Morning Sun) set to adapt King's seminal horror novel. Rehearsals are scheduled to begin in the fall, with London performances set for January 2023 before an eventual move to Broadway.
Of course, the tortured Torrance patriarch was most famously played by Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick's classic, with Steven Weber trying his hand in the 1997 miniseries, and Henry Thomas portraying the character in Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep.
This latest take on the chilling tale is said to "adhere more closely with King’s 1977 book than Stanley Kubrick’s film,” which should make the legendary writer happy, as he famously took issue with Kubrick's changes to the source material - particularly when it came to his depiction of Torrance.
Stiller may seem like an odd choice for this part, but he has taken on a handful of more dramatic roles over the course of his career.