Prequel to THE SHINING in the Works?

Get ready to return to Overlook Hotel.

The Los Angeles Times is hearing word that Warner Bros. Pictures is “exploring the possibility of a prequel” to Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 psychological horror ‘The Shining.’

Adapted from Stephen King’s 1977 novel of the same name the original starred Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, a frustrated writer, who in order to get his latest novel finished, takes a job as the winter caretaker at the ominous, mountain-locked Overlook Hotel. When he arrives there with his wife (Shelley Duvall) and son (Danny Lloyd), they learn that the previous caretaker had gone mad. Slowly Jack becomes possessed by the evil, demonic presence in the hotel.

The prequel, which is in the “very early stage and not even formally in development,” would revolve around the events that unfolded before Torrance and his family arrived at the haunted retreat.

Writer-producer Laeta Kalogridis (‘Shutter Island,’ ‘Night Watch’) and her partners Bradley Fischer (‘Black Swan,’ ‘Zodiac’) and James Vanderbilt (‘The Amazing Spider-Man,’ ‘Welcome to the Jungle’) are believed to be on board to develop and produce the project.

Meanwhile, King’s ‘Doctor Sleep,’ a sequel that catches up with a middle-aged Danny is set to arrive on book shelves in January 2013.