Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ Lands Surprise Documentary from His Estate: ‘A Holy Grail of Film History’

The Overlook Hotel is being revisited in a new “The Shining” documentary, certified by the Stanley Kubrick Film Archive and family estate.

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The just-announced documentary, titled “Shine On – The Forgotten ‘Shining’ Location,” will premiere on the official Stanley Kubrick YouTube channel on Friday, July 26 at 11 a.m. PST/2 p.m. EST to commemorate the late filmmaker’s birthday. The feature captures the location scouting and making of the art direction for the Overlook Hotel at Elstree Studios.

Michael Sheen narrates “Shine On,” which includes interviews with “The Shining” executive producer Jan Harlan, art director Les Tomkins, and Kubrick’s daughter Katharina Kubrick, who worked as a location researcher on the film. The interviewees will “revisit the studio locations and share their memories about a film frequently voted the best horror film of all time,” per the official synopsis.

Almost 50 years after the film’s release, all the Overlook Hotel’s sets are thought to have been destroyed, but one last filming site remains.

“There have been so many rumors about some of the sets from ‘The Shining’ still existing at Elstree Studios, but to actually find them and walk around them was like discovering a holy grail of film history,” “Shine On” director/producer Paul King said in a press statement. A trailer for the film will debut Friday, July 19 before the July 26 launch.

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Katharina Kubrick added, “The production of ‘The Shining’ has been well documented and analyzed, but this is a story which has never been told. Pivotal scenes from the film took place in these areas, so going back to them felt like stepping into the movie itself.”

“Shine On” was made in conjunction with the Stanley Kubrick Film Archive, Elstree Studios, UAL, and the Kubrick family. Additional “The Shining” documentaries have included “Room 237” as well as Vivian Kubrick’s BBC documentary “The Making of ‘The Shining.'”

“The Shining” star Shelley Duvall, whose stressful experience on Kubrick’s set is chronicled in the Vivian Kubrick film, died on July 11 at age 75 .

The Kubrick estate has also approved other expansions on the auteur’s filmography, such as the “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” stage adaptation on the West End, as announced in 2023. “Veep” and “Avenue 5” creator Armando Iannucci will direct the first-ever adaptation of a Kubrick property. Kubrick’s widow, Christiane Kubrick, confirmed the upcoming play based on the 1964 political satire starring Peter Sellers.