The owners of the iconic Stanley Hotel in Colorado – better known as The Overlook Hotel in the classic horror novel 'The Shining' – are planning to open the world’s first horror-themed museum inside the building, according to a new report.

Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 classic movie, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duval, based on Stephen King's book, was inspired by the vast hotel. Though the interior of the hotel you see in the movie itself was constructed in Elstree Studios in Britain, and the exterior shots are of the Timberline Lodge in Oregon, the Stanley Hotel in Colorado was the inspiration that King used for his 1977 novel.

Stephen KingStephen King's novel was inspired by a stay at the Stanley Hotel

King’s book depicts a writer who goes insane through cabin fever while acting as the maintenance man for the hotel over the winter, staying there with his wife and young son. It was a bestseller upon publication, and the movie rights were quickly snapped up by Kubrick, who needed a commercial hit after the comparative failure of Barry Lyndon.

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But the current owners of the Stanley Hotel are planning a $24 million development at the site, to include a 30,000 square foot interactive museum, 500 seat auditorium, exhibition space, production facilities and editing suites, according to the initial report by the Denver Business Journal.

Big-name actors Simon Pegg and Elijah Wood are rumoured to be founding members of the board of the planned educational film centre, envisioned as “the world's first horror-themed museum, film archive, and film production studio.”

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Speaking to PR Newswire, Wood said: “I would love to have a home for which we could constantly come year-round and celebrate with other fans from around the world. There's really no better place for there to be a permanent home for the celebration of horror as an art form than the Stanley Hotel. It was practically built for it.”

The developers hope to work with the Colorado Film School and run the project as a public-private, non-profit endeavour, are lobbying for $11.5 million in state funding. It already plays host to an annual film festival, but the hotel itself is hoping to make itself a year-round horror attraction, according to Variety.

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