trivia for The Shining (1980)
Stanley Kubrick had a large stack of books that he was looking through to find a
movie project. For a couple of hours, his secretary could hear him pick up a book,
read it for about a minute, and then hurl it into the wall. She then noticed that this
hadn't happened in a while, so she went in to check on him, and found him reading
'King, Stephen' 's "The Shining". King says that this is really strange, because the
start of the book is very slow, and doesn't have much to do with the rest of the story.
During the making of the movie, Kubrick would call King at 3am and ask him
questions like "Do you believe in God?"
The Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood in Oregon was used for the exteriors, but all the
interiors were specially built on a soundstage in London, England. The management
of the Timberline Lodge requested that Kubrick not use room 217 (as specified in
the book), fearing that nobody would want to stay in that room ever again. Kubrick
changed the script to use the nonexistent room number 237.
The book that Jack was writing contained the one sentence ("All work and no play
makes Jack a dull boy") repeated over and over. Kubrick had each page individually
typed. For the Italian version of the film, Kubrick used the phrase "Il mattino ha l' oro
in bocca" ("He who wakes up early meets a golden day"). For the German version, it
was "Was Du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf Morgen" ("Never put
off till tomorrow what you can do today") For the Spanish version, it was "No por
mucho madrugar amanece más temprano" ("Although one will rise early, it won't
dawn sooner.")
Kubrick decided that having the hedge animals come alive was unworkable, so he
opted for a hedge maze instead.
Kubrick demanded 127 takes from Shelley Duvall in one scene.
Nicholson ad-libbed the line "Here's Johnny!"
During the scene where Wendy brings Jack breakfast in bed, it can be seen in the
reflection of the mirror that Jack's T-shirt says "Stovington" on it. While not
mentioned in the film, this is the name of the school that Jack used to teach at in the
Steven King novel.
Stanley Kubrick, known for his compulsiveness and numerous retakes, got the
difficult shot of blood pouring from the elevators in only three takes. This would be
remarkable if it weren't for the fact that the shot took nine days to set up; every time
the doors opened and the blood poured out, Kubrick would say, "It doesn't look like
blood." They had tried shooting that scene for an entire year.
Stanley Kubrick ordered more than 120 takes in the scene where the camera simply
slowly zooms in on Scatman Crothers as he "shines" in his bedroom. Kubrick
originally wanted approximately 70 takes of the scene where Hollaran gets killed by
Jack Torrance, but Jack Nicholson talked Kubrick into going easy on the 70 year-old
Crothers and stopping after 40. At one point during the filming, Crothers became so
exasperated with Kubrick's notorious, compulsive style of excessive retakes that he
broke down and cried, asking "What do you want, Mr. Kubrick?"
Because of the way Stanley Kubrick treated the cast (especially the 70-year-old
Scatman Crothers) by making them endure nearly endless takes, Jack Nicholson
vowed that he would never again work with Stanley Kubrick, and he never again did.
Kubrick made the cast watch Eraserhead (1977) to put them in the mood he wanted
from them.
All of the interior rooms of The Overlook Hotel were filmed at Elstree Studios in
England, including The Colorado Lounge, where Jack does his typing. Because of
the intense heat generated from the lighting used to recreate window sunlight, the
lounge set caught fire. Fortunately all of the scenes had been completed there, so
the set was rebuilt with a higher ceiling, and the same area was eventually used by
Steven Spielberg as the snake-filled Well of the Souls tomb in Raiders of the Lost
Ark (1981).
Jack (as played by Jack Nicholson) references Portland, Oregon, the location of his
previous film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), which also starred Scatman
Crothers.
The Louisville Slugger baseball bat with which Wendy Torrance bludgeons Jack is
signed by Carl Yastrzemski, Hall of Fame Red Sox player. Author 'Stephen King' is a
huge Red Sox fan.
Every time Jack talks to a "ghost", there's a mirror in the scene, except in the food
locker scene. This is because in the food locker scene he only talks to Grady
through the door. We never see Grady like we do in the other "ghost" scenes.
When first released, the film had an alternate ending: the party photos shot (now the
last shot in the film) dissolves to a scene in a hospital, where Wendy is resting in a
bed and Danny is playing in a waiting room. Ullman tells her that they have been
unable to locate her husband's body anywhere on the property. On his way out,
Ullman gives Danny a ball -- the same one that mysteriously rolled into a hallway
earlier in the film, before Danny was attacked in room 237. Ullman laughs and walks
away while Danny "shines" the Overlook Hotel. Kubrick had the scene removed a
week after the film was released.
According to author Stephen King, the title is inspired by the refrain in the Plastic
Ono Band's song, "Instant Karma" (by John Lennon), which features the chorus: "We
all shine on."
The movie Wendy and Danny are watching on the opening of Monday is Summer of
'42 (1971).
At the time of release, it was the policy of the MPAA to not allow the portrayal of
blood in trailers that would be approved for all audiences. In order to overcome this,
Kubrick convinced the board that was approving the trailer that the blood flooding
out of the elevator was actually rusty water.
Because Danny Lloyd was so young and since it was his first acting job, Stanley
Kubrick was highly protective of the child. Through clever and creative directing,
Danny didn't know he was working on a horror movie until after it was released.
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [faces] Jack, as he chases his son through the
maze.
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [faces] Danny, when he sees the twins in the
hallway.
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [three-way] Danny vs. the Overlook vs. Jack
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [zoom] when Halloran is on his bed watching
TV.
The former caretaker of the Overlook Hotel has two different names (Charles Grady
and Delbert Grady) because he's supposed to be two different people. Charles is
the caretaker who murdered his wife and daughters in the winter of 1970, and
Delbert is the butler of the Overlook Hotel at the 4th of July party in 1921(which Jack
was also at).
This is a reference to the original book (the former caretaker's name didn't change
like it did in the movie, but he was at the hotel in two different time periods- once at a
masquerade ball in 1945 and again as the caretaker in 1970.). The use of two
different names in the movie is simply to show that Grady has been at the Overlook
Hotel twice, just like Jack.
The throwing around of the tennis ball inside the overlook hotel was Jack Nicholson's
idea. The script originally only specified "Jack is not working".
Out-takes of the shots of the Volkswagen traveling towards the Overlook at the start
of the film were plundered by Ridley Scott (with Kubrick's permission) for the 'happy
ending' in the original release of _Blade Runner (1984)_ .
The "snowy" maze near the conclusion of the movie consisted of salt and crushed
Styrofoam.
Stanley Kubrick's first choice to play Danny Torrence was Cary Guffey, the young
boy from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Guffey's parents apparently
turned down the offer due to the film's subject matter.
Billie Gibson, the old woman in the tub, has been falsely rumored to be Ann Gibson,
Mel Gibson's late mother.
Cameo(Norman Gay): The injured guest who frightens Shelley Duvall by saying
"Great party, isn't it?" was played by film editor Norman Gay.
Neither Lia Beldam (Young woman in tub) nor Billie Gibson (Old woman in tub)
appeared in another movie after this one.
There were so many changes to the script during shooting that Jack Nicholson
claimed that he stopped reading it. He would read only the new pages that were
given to him each day.
Stanley Kubrick composed and shot this film in the negative ratio (1.37:1) format so
that in TV we see it in 1.33:1, but in the cinemas wee see it in 1.85:1 (aspect ratio).
When a film is shot in 1.37:1, the top and the bottom of the frame are intended to be
masked off in the cinemas to create a widescreen version, but are not masked off in
the TV - VHS - DVD version.
Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind wrote and performed a full electronic score for the
film, but Kubrick discarded most of it and used a soundtrack of mostly classical
music. Only the adaptation of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique during the opening
credits, the music during the family's drive to the hotel, and a few other brief
moments (such as Halloran's plane trip) survive in the final version. Wendy Carlos
once noted that she'd like to see the original score released on CD, but there were
too many legal snags at the time.
For the scene in which Jack breaks down the bathroom door, the props department
built a door that could be easily broken. However, Jack Nicholson worked as a
volunteer fire marshal and tore it apart easily. The props department were then
forced to build a stronger door.
Anjelica Huston lived with Jack Nicholson during the time of the shooting. She
recalled that, due to the long hours on the set and Stanley Kubrick's trademark style
of repetitive takes, Nicholson would often return from a day's shooting, walk straight
to the bed, collapse onto it and would immediately fall asleep.
Tony Burton, who had a brief role as Larry Durkin the garage owner, arrived on set
one day carrying a chess set in hopes of getting in a game with someone during a
break from filming. Stanley Kubrick, an avid chess player who had in his youth
played for money, noticed the chess set. Despite production being behind schedule,
Kubrick proceeded to call off filming for the day and engage in a set of games with
Burton. Even though Kubrick won each game, Burton said the director thanked him
since it had been some time that he'd played against a challenging opponent.
During the first steadicam tracking shot of Danny on his tricycle, a sign reading
"Camera Walk" can be seen next to a staircase.
Kubrick wanted to shoot the film in script order. This meant having all the relevant
sets standing by at all times. In order to achieve this every sound stage at Elstree
was used, with all the sets built, pre-lit and ready to go during the entire shoot at the
studios.
Author Stephen King was quoted many times as saying he was disappointed in this
film because he felt Kubrick did not quite understand the horror genre.
In the scene where Danny Lloyd rides his bike through the hall and encounters the
Grady daughters, he never actually sees them. The scene was accomplished by
Kubrick directing Lloyd to turn the corner into an empty hall. Kubrick then directed
Danny to stop, look scared, cover his eyes, and so on. At a different time, Kubrick
filmed the girls by themselves in the hall standing together. In post-production, he
took the film from the two scenes and spliced them together to make it look like it was
all happening at the same time - hence giving the illusion that Lloyd (who didn't
realize until years later that The Shining was a scary movie) was actually seeing the
two girls.
The design of the Overlook's Colorado Lounge and Lobby are based very closely on
the beautiful Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite national park. The chandeliers, windows
and fireplace are nearly identical, so much so that people entering the Ahwahnee
often ask if it's "the Shining hotel".
Source: http://www.imdb.com/
Stanley Kubrick had a large stack of books that he was looking through to find a
movie project. For a couple of hours, his secretary could hear him pick up a book,
read it for about a minute, and then hurl it into the wall. She then noticed that this
hadn't happened in a while, so she went in to check on him, and found him reading
'King, Stephen' 's "The Shining". King says that this is really strange, because the
start of the book is very slow, and doesn't have much to do with the rest of the story.
During the making of the movie, Kubrick would call King at 3am and ask him
questions like "Do you believe in God?"
The Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood in Oregon was used for the exteriors, but all the
interiors were specially built on a soundstage in London, England. The management
of the Timberline Lodge requested that Kubrick not use room 217 (as specified in
the book), fearing that nobody would want to stay in that room ever again. Kubrick
changed the script to use the nonexistent room number 237.
The book that Jack was writing contained the one sentence ("All work and no play
makes Jack a dull boy") repeated over and over. Kubrick had each page individually
typed. For the Italian version of the film, Kubrick used the phrase "Il mattino ha l' oro
in bocca" ("He who wakes up early meets a golden day"). For the German version, it
was "Was Du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf Morgen" ("Never put
off till tomorrow what you can do today") For the Spanish version, it was "No por
mucho madrugar amanece más temprano" ("Although one will rise early, it won't
dawn sooner.")
Kubrick decided that having the hedge animals come alive was unworkable, so he
opted for a hedge maze instead.
Kubrick demanded 127 takes from Shelley Duvall in one scene.
Nicholson ad-libbed the line "Here's Johnny!"
During the scene where Wendy brings Jack breakfast in bed, it can be seen in the
reflection of the mirror that Jack's T-shirt says "Stovington" on it. While not
mentioned in the film, this is the name of the school that Jack used to teach at in the
Steven King novel.
Stanley Kubrick, known for his compulsiveness and numerous retakes, got the
difficult shot of blood pouring from the elevators in only three takes. This would be
remarkable if it weren't for the fact that the shot took nine days to set up; every time
the doors opened and the blood poured out, Kubrick would say, "It doesn't look like
blood." They had tried shooting that scene for an entire year.
Stanley Kubrick ordered more than 120 takes in the scene where the camera simply
slowly zooms in on Scatman Crothers as he "shines" in his bedroom. Kubrick
originally wanted approximately 70 takes of the scene where Hollaran gets killed by
Jack Torrance, but Jack Nicholson talked Kubrick into going easy on the 70 year-old
Crothers and stopping after 40. At one point during the filming, Crothers became so
exasperated with Kubrick's notorious, compulsive style of excessive retakes that he
broke down and cried, asking "What do you want, Mr. Kubrick?"
Because of the way Stanley Kubrick treated the cast (especially the 70-year-old
Scatman Crothers) by making them endure nearly endless takes, Jack Nicholson
vowed that he would never again work with Stanley Kubrick, and he never again did.
Kubrick made the cast watch Eraserhead (1977) to put them in the mood he wanted
from them.
All of the interior rooms of The Overlook Hotel were filmed at Elstree Studios in
England, including The Colorado Lounge, where Jack does his typing. Because of
the intense heat generated from the lighting used to recreate window sunlight, the
lounge set caught fire. Fortunately all of the scenes had been completed there, so
the set was rebuilt with a higher ceiling, and the same area was eventually used by
Steven Spielberg as the snake-filled Well of the Souls tomb in Raiders of the Lost
Ark (1981).
Jack (as played by Jack Nicholson) references Portland, Oregon, the location of his
previous film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), which also starred Scatman
Crothers.
The Louisville Slugger baseball bat with which Wendy Torrance bludgeons Jack is
signed by Carl Yastrzemski, Hall of Fame Red Sox player. Author 'Stephen King' is a
huge Red Sox fan.
Every time Jack talks to a "ghost", there's a mirror in the scene, except in the food
locker scene. This is because in the food locker scene he only talks to Grady
through the door. We never see Grady like we do in the other "ghost" scenes.
When first released, the film had an alternate ending: the party photos shot (now the
last shot in the film) dissolves to a scene in a hospital, where Wendy is resting in a
bed and Danny is playing in a waiting room. Ullman tells her that they have been
unable to locate her husband's body anywhere on the property. On his way out,
Ullman gives Danny a ball -- the same one that mysteriously rolled into a hallway
earlier in the film, before Danny was attacked in room 237. Ullman laughs and walks
away while Danny "shines" the Overlook Hotel. Kubrick had the scene removed a
week after the film was released.
According to author Stephen King, the title is inspired by the refrain in the Plastic
Ono Band's song, "Instant Karma" (by John Lennon), which features the chorus: "We
all shine on."
The movie Wendy and Danny are watching on the opening of Monday is Summer of
'42 (1971).
At the time of release, it was the policy of the MPAA to not allow the portrayal of
blood in trailers that would be approved for all audiences. In order to overcome this,
Kubrick convinced the board that was approving the trailer that the blood flooding
out of the elevator was actually rusty water.
Because Danny Lloyd was so young and since it was his first acting job, Stanley
Kubrick was highly protective of the child. Through clever and creative directing,
Danny didn't know he was working on a horror movie until after it was released.
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [faces] Jack, as he chases his son through the
maze.
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [faces] Danny, when he sees the twins in the
hallway.
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [three-way] Danny vs. the Overlook vs. Jack
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [zoom] when Halloran is on his bed watching
TV.
The former caretaker of the Overlook Hotel has two different names (Charles Grady
and Delbert Grady) because he's supposed to be two different people. Charles is
the caretaker who murdered his wife and daughters in the winter of 1970, and
Delbert is the butler of the Overlook Hotel at the 4th of July party in 1921(which Jack
was also at).
This is a reference to the original book (the former caretaker's name didn't change
like it did in the movie, but he was at the hotel in two different time periods- once at a
masquerade ball in 1945 and again as the caretaker in 1970.). The use of two
different names in the movie is simply to show that Grady has been at the Overlook
Hotel twice, just like Jack.
The throwing around of the tennis ball inside the overlook hotel was Jack Nicholson's
idea. The script originally only specified "Jack is not working".
Out-takes of the shots of the Volkswagen traveling towards the Overlook at the start
of the film were plundered by Ridley Scott (with Kubrick's permission) for the 'happy
ending' in the original release of _Blade Runner (1984)_ .
The "snowy" maze near the conclusion of the movie consisted of salt and crushed
Styrofoam.
Stanley Kubrick's first choice to play Danny Torrence was Cary Guffey, the young
boy from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Guffey's parents apparently
turned down the offer due to the film's subject matter.
Billie Gibson, the old woman in the tub, has been falsely rumored to be Ann Gibson,
Mel Gibson's late mother.
Cameo(Norman Gay): The injured guest who frightens Shelley Duvall by saying
"Great party, isn't it?" was played by film editor Norman Gay.
Neither Lia Beldam (Young woman in tub) nor Billie Gibson (Old woman in tub)
appeared in another movie after this one.
There were so many changes to the script during shooting that Jack Nicholson
claimed that he stopped reading it. He would read only the new pages that were
given to him each day.
Stanley Kubrick composed and shot this film in the negative ratio (1.37:1) format so
that in TV we see it in 1.33:1, but in the cinemas wee see it in 1.85:1 (aspect ratio).
When a film is shot in 1.37:1, the top and the bottom of the frame are intended to be
masked off in the cinemas to create a widescreen version, but are not masked off in
the TV - VHS - DVD version.
Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind wrote and performed a full electronic score for the
film, but Kubrick discarded most of it and used a soundtrack of mostly classical
music. Only the adaptation of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique during the opening
credits, the music during the family's drive to the hotel, and a few other brief
moments (such as Halloran's plane trip) survive in the final version. Wendy Carlos
once noted that she'd like to see the original score released on CD, but there were
too many legal snags at the time.
For the scene in which Jack breaks down the bathroom door, the props department
built a door that could be easily broken. However, Jack Nicholson worked as a
volunteer fire marshal and tore it apart easily. The props department were then
forced to build a stronger door.
Anjelica Huston lived with Jack Nicholson during the time of the shooting. She
recalled that, due to the long hours on the set and Stanley Kubrick's trademark style
of repetitive takes, Nicholson would often return from a day's shooting, walk straight
to the bed, collapse onto it and would immediately fall asleep.
Tony Burton, who had a brief role as Larry Durkin the garage owner, arrived on set
one day carrying a chess set in hopes of getting in a game with someone during a
break from filming. Stanley Kubrick, an avid chess player who had in his youth
played for money, noticed the chess set. Despite production being behind schedule,
Kubrick proceeded to call off filming for the day and engage in a set of games with
Burton. Even though Kubrick won each game, Burton said the director thanked him
since it had been some time that he'd played against a challenging opponent.
During the first steadicam tracking shot of Danny on his tricycle, a sign reading
"Camera Walk" can be seen next to a staircase.
Kubrick wanted to shoot the film in script order. This meant having all the relevant
sets standing by at all times. In order to achieve this every sound stage at Elstree
was used, with all the sets built, pre-lit and ready to go during the entire shoot at the
studios.
Author Stephen King was quoted many times as saying he was disappointed in this
film because he felt Kubrick did not quite understand the horror genre.
In the scene where Danny Lloyd rides his bike through the hall and encounters the
Grady daughters, he never actually sees them. The scene was accomplished by
Kubrick directing Lloyd to turn the corner into an empty hall. Kubrick then directed
Danny to stop, look scared, cover his eyes, and so on. At a different time, Kubrick
filmed the girls by themselves in the hall standing together. In post-production, he
took the film from the two scenes and spliced them together to make it look like it was
all happening at the same time - hence giving the illusion that Lloyd (who didn't
realize until years later that The Shining was a scary movie) was actually seeing the
two girls.
The design of the Overlook's Colorado Lounge and Lobby are based very closely on
the beautiful Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite national park. The chandeliers, windows
and fireplace are nearly identical, so much so that people entering the Ahwahnee
often ask if it's "the Shining hotel".
Source: http://www.imdb.com/
Room 217 at The Stanley on Halloween night
The interior of room 217 .......(but it is NOT the most haunted room at the Stanley.......)
(Scroll down for more pictures)
The
Shining
Shining
The 1997 TV miniseries 'The Shining' (with Rebecca De Mornay and
Steven Weber) was filmed at the historic (and haunted) Stanley Hotel in
Estes Park, CO.
The Stanley Hotel is not only where the TV miniseries was filmed but is also
the hotel that originally inspired Stephen King to write the novel, The
Shining, having booked a vacation there just as the hotel was closing for
the season and was nearly empty of guests and employees.
He stayed in Room 217.
The Stanley Kubrick film The Shining was filmed (interior shots) in London-
with exterior shots being filmed at Timberline Lodge (Mt. Hood, Oregon).
Steven Weber) was filmed at the historic (and haunted) Stanley Hotel in
Estes Park, CO.
The Stanley Hotel is not only where the TV miniseries was filmed but is also
the hotel that originally inspired Stephen King to write the novel, The
Shining, having booked a vacation there just as the hotel was closing for
the season and was nearly empty of guests and employees.
He stayed in Room 217.
The Stanley Kubrick film The Shining was filmed (interior shots) in London-
with exterior shots being filmed at Timberline Lodge (Mt. Hood, Oregon).
*** Tip: The gift shop at The Stanley Hotel has very neat Shining memorabilia (such
as: T-shirts, mugs, brass "Room 217" door plaques, etc...)
as: T-shirts, mugs, brass "Room 217" door plaques, etc...)
