Given the current wave of Stephen King movies and TV shows doing big business at the moment, you would have thought that The Shining spin-off series Overlook would have been a sure fire winner for HBO Max, but it seems that they have decided that the project from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot is not one they want to move forward with. While it would be a no brainier for the Warner Bros. drama to go to HBO Max, it seems that are instead trying to find it a new home, with some suggestions saying that Netflix are the likely target.

Overlook tells the story of the hotel made famous by King's novel The Shining, which has been made into numerous movies and TV shows in its own right. Written by Dustin Thomason and Scott Brown, the series was originally commissioned back in 2019 and was parent of the Bad Robot deal with WarnerMedia, but with the top decision makers switching around since then, the current people who have the say apparently just don't see a place for Overlook in the current line up.

Bad Robot are not exactly left wanting by the news with a whole slew of projects either in or about to enter production across the HBO and HBO Max platforms. The new season of Westworld is currently filming, while there is also upcoming series Demimonde, Duster and Subject To Change already in production as well as Fledgling having just been sold for development at HBO. All of this is on top of the Justice League Dark projects, which although not confirmed officially including Madame X and Constantine in the process of heading into pre-production. It should also be pointed out that Lovecraft Country was also one of Bad Robot's productions that HBO recently decided not to renew despite its high praise and 18 Emmy nominations.

Overlook is not the first project of King's that Warner Bros and Bad Robot have collaborated on, having already gained critical acclaim for Castle Rock and time-travelling limited series 11.22.63 both providing hits for Hulu, and Lisey's Story, which has just recently aired on Apple TV+. With such sterling work behind then, it again makes the decision not to have this on HBO Max a strange one.

The Shining is one of King's best known stories, mainly thanks to the almost perfect movie of 1980 by Stanley Kubrick - a version which King hated by his own admission. The novel was later adapted for TV by King in a mini-series that allowed him to put his version of the story on screen without the many changes that Kubrick made in the movie, and a belated sequel, Doctor Sleep, was written by Stephen King a few years ago, and was made into a movie starring Ewan McGregor.

While there have been unconfirmed whispers that Netflix are being approached to take on Overlook, it would find a home on the platform along with other King works like 1922 and In The Tall Grass which made their premieres with the streamer in the last few years. This news originated at Deadline.