THE SHINING RETURNS

The rumors that you may have heard floating around about a wide theatrical release of a restored version of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror film The Shining were confirmed today by longtime Kubrick associate and the film's associate executive producer, Armen Karshargian, here in Burbank. Apparently buoyed by the box-office success of the special edition of The Exorcist back in September of 2000, studio executives, in conjunction with Karshargian and representatives of the Kubrick estate, revealed today that the film will be rushed into theaters to take advantage of the Halloween season and commemorate the film's 25th anniversary. (The release date was announced as October 24). The restored version will feature no added material, unlike the Exorcist rerelease, but some material has been recut slightly to conform to instructions found in the director's archives, reversing changes that were made in the wake of a less-than-satisfying sneak preview held in Lawrence, Kansas just two weeks before the film was originally released in May, 1980. "Fans of The Shining and Stanley's films may notice that some critical scenes play slightly differently," Karshargian said, adding that most changes could be equated to the difference between a "C" note on a musical scale and a C-sharp. "The scenes are still there and the film is recognizably what it has always been," Karshargian continued, "but the changes we initiated from Stanley's notes will hopefully have the effect he intended-- to expand the appeal of the film to a wider demographic and add a further frisson of terror to a few scenes that he always felt came off a little flatter than expected." Karshargian also noted that if the upcoming re-release of the restored version of The Shining does as well as expected, fans of the director's work can look forward to a similar revisiting of another Kubrick film, Barry Lyndon. "Stanley always imagined Lyndon's battle scenes as a bit more muscular and hallucinatory than what the studio had in mind when the film was originally released in 1975," claims the producer. If the project sees the light of day, Karshargian said, "expect a fully more visceral experience," which may utilize up to 45 more minutes of footage shot by Kubrick that he was forced to excise. Karshargian likens it to the work of another director familiar with the horrors of the battlefield: "I expect it'll end up looking a bit like an Oliver Stone film, but from footage shot 10 years before Stone ever exposed a frame of film as a director." The studio also made the trailer for the restored version of The Shining available today. You can see it here, but you'll need Quick Time.

UPDATE Oct. 1, 2:33pm: The Mysterious Adrian Betamax has directed me to a New York Times story about the creator of this recut Shining mini-phenomenon, Robert Ryang. You may have to register online to read it, however...