Here's Johnny! Ben Stiller is in talks play Jack Torrance in a new stage adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining.
According to Deadline, the show is set to make its West End debut in January 2023 with Stiller as the lead. Rehearsals are slated to begin this fall.
A stage adaptation of Stephen King's classic horror novel was first announced in 2017, with the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic ultimately pausing the production process.
The project is helmed by Broadway director Ivo van Hove, with Tony Award winner Simon Stephens adapting the play directly from the 1977 novel. The stage play will reportedly be a more faithful adaptation of the book than Stanley Kubrick's 1980 feature, which detoured from the original plot and changed the ending. Jack Nicholson famously starred as Jack Torrance, alongside Shelley Duvall as Wendy and Danny Lloyd as Danny. The adaptation, while largely unfaithful, cemented itself as one of the most influential horror films of all time.
Stiller is no stranger to Stephen King or the stage. In 2011, the actor starred alongside Edie Falco and Jennifer Jason Leigh in a Broadway revival of House of Blue Leaves. It was announced in 2020 that Stiller would produce, direct, and star in a film adaptation of King's novella, Rat. Much like The Shining, the story also follows a frustrated author plagued with writer's block who slowly descends into madness – and strikes up a sinister deal with a rat.
