Ben Stiller Reportedly in Talks to Star in Ivo van Hove's The Shining

Belgium director Ivo van Hove (Network, West Side Story) will be uniting horror fans and theatre lovers with his latest project. The Tony winner is helming an adaptation of Stephen King's acclaimed novel The Shining for the West End stage, with a London premiere expected for January 2023. Deadline reports that Emmy winner Ben Stiller is in talks to play the lead character Jack Torrance, immortalized in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation by Jack Nicholson.

While the casting has yet to be finalized, rehearsals are expected to begin this fall. The work is expected to be Broadway-bound following its London premiere.

It has been reported that Tony winner Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) will adapt the script and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child duo Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender will serve as producers.

This adaptation won't be Stiller's first exposure to the Broadway community. He made his Broadway debut in 1986 playing Ronnie Shaughnessy in The House of Blue Leaves, later showing up in the 2011 revival as Artie Shaughnessy. Stiller is best known for his comedic movie roles, having starred in Zoolander, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Anchorman.

Van Hove was last seen on Broadway directing the 2020 reimagining of West Side Story, which was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that, he made his debut directing a production of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, winning a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, with other productions including The Crucible and Network, and Off-Broadway productions of A Streetcar Named Desire, Antigone, and Lazarus.

READ: Ivo van Hove's Revival of West Side Story Will Not Reopen on Broadway

The Shining tells the story of the Torrance family whose patriarch, aspiring writer Jack, is hired as the caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. Early on, the remote hotel's deadly past is revealed, involving deadly murders and executions, which was once carried out by the previous caretaker. Despite these coincidences, Jack insists on going forth with the job which turns into a nightmarish situation for the entire family.

The novel was adapted into a movie in 1980, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. Stage adaptations include an opera by Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell and a 2014 musical parody, which had a NYC reading with Marc Kudisch and Alice Ripley.