Ben Stiller is in talks to star in Ivo van Hove’s upcoming stage adaptation of Stephen King’s horror classic The Shining, Variety has confirmed. The play is due to open in the West End next year.
Should Stiller’s deal go through, he will play the lead role of Jack Torrance, an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who is hired off-season as a janitor at a historic Colorado hotel. Jack Nicholson immortalized the character in Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking 1980 film The Shining.
“We can confirm that we are in negotiations with Ben Stiller for his starring role in Ivo van Hove’s theatrical production of Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’, adapted by Simon Stephens, for the West End, with dates to be announced,” said a A spokesman for Sonia Friedman Productions in a statement. “Discussions are at an early stage, so we cannot confirm any further details at this time.”
It wouldn’t be the first foray into live theater for Stiller, who is best known for comedies like Zoolander and Tropic Thunder. He starred in the 2011 Broadway revival of John Guare’s House of Blue Leaves with Edie Falco and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Stiller made his Broadway debut in the original 1986 production.
The Shining is expected to begin rehearsals in the fall, in time for its January 2023 debut. Producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender have said they hope the play eventually makes it to Broadway. Other casts are not yet known.
A spokesman for SFP told Variety: “We can confirm that we are in negotiations with Ben Stiller for his lead role in Ivo van Hove’s theater production of Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’, adapted by Simon Stephens, for the West End, with dates, which are yet to be confirmed. Discussions are at an early stage, so we cannot confirm any further details at this time.”
The stage adaptation of The Shining is expected to stick more closely to King’s 1977 book than Kubrick’s film, in which Shelley Duvall played Jack’s wife Wendy Torrance and Danny Lloyd played his young son Danny Torrance.
Van Hove, who recently directed an ultramodern version of “West Side Story” on The Great White Way, assembled a creative team that included writer Simon Stephens (“Sea Wall/A Life”) and producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender (“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”).
Van Hove’s other stage credits include the 2019 Broadway adaptation of Network, starring Bryan Cranston as host Howard Beale, and a 2019 West End version of All About Eve, starring Gillian Anderson and Lily James .
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