Every Stanley Kubrick rumour debunked by the director of ‘Toy Story 3’
Ask a film fan to name their Mt Rushmore of directors, and chances are they’ll come up with the name Stanley Kubrick.
The maverick filmmaker has a serious claim to being the greatest of all time, not just because of the quality of his work, but also due to the sheer variety. Want to watch a game-changing science fiction movie? Try 2001: A Space Odyssey. Looking for a film about the horrors of war? Full Metal Jacket is your answer. Need a good laugh? Dr Strangelove should do you right.
However, if you’re in the market for scares, then Kubrick’s take on The Shining is perhaps the best option you can go for. Adapted from Stephen King’s novel, not very well, if you ask the author, the story of the Torrance family and their stay in the Overlook Hotel is widely regarded as one of the greatest horror movies ever made. As unsettling as it is beautiful, the film has inspired generations of fans and cultish followers, one of the biggest of whom is director and editor Lee Unkrich.
A long-standing collaborator with Pixar, Unkrich has worked on some of the animation studio’s biggest projects. He directed Toy Story 3 and Coco on his own, as well as co-directed Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc and Finding Nemo. He has edited and produced a number of other classic kids’ films, making him one of the most vital cogs in the Pixar machine.
Considering he’s spent his life making some of the most cherished children’s movies of all time, it’s quite amusing that Unkrich loves a film as dark and twisted as The Shining. Pixar’s canon is full of references to the film, many of which are Unkrich’s doing. He also helped compile a massive, collector’s edition book on the making of the film. Released in 2022, the book titled Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining details the amazing story behind the production, including some long-standing myths that actually turned out not to be true.
Kubrick developed a reputation for running scenes dozens of times over, especially on The Shining. According to the book, however, the number of 127 takes (or 148, according to some) for one scene is massively overexaggerated. “The shot that has the most takes in the entire film [66] that no one talks about is the big, long dolly shot that brought Jack and Wendy and the hotel manager into the Gold Ballroom at the beginning of the movie,” Unkrich writes. “I’ve been researching this movie so long that I’ve seen these incorrect or exaggerated stories appear, and then I’ve watched them become more and more exaggerated over the years. And a lot of times it’s harmless.”
The book also tackles the scuttlebutt surrounding Kubrick and Shelley Duvall, who played Wendy. “Shelley has nothing but great things to say about Stanley,” it says, discrediting the stories that she was basically abused on set, claiming, “She loved him”. Duvall has spoken on the subject herself, which Unkrich was keen to mention: “I’m very careful in talking about that subject to let Shelley have the last word because she’s the one who experienced it”.
The further away we get from the release of The Shining, the more its legend seems to grow. There will be plenty more written about it, for sure, with even more stories, anecdotes, and rumours about this head-spinning masterpiece.
