Movies - TV
How Stanley Kubrick's
The Shining Influenced Joseph Kosinski's Spiderhead
By KAYLEE DUGAN
Stanley Kubrick was a perfectionist in his filmmaking, and one of the aspects that he especially paid attention to in his films was the architecture. In an interview, director Joseph Kosinski talked about how this aspect of Kubrick’s filmmaking in “The Shining” influenced his Netflix sci-fi movie “Spiderhead.”
In “Spiderhead,” Chris Hemsworth plays a pharmaceutical genius who runs a prison where he tests mood-altering drugs on the prisoners. Just like the Overlook Hotel influenced the actions of the characters in “The Shining,” the prison in “Spiderhead” is important to the storytelling with its angular, futuristic exterior and relaxing, modern interior.
Kosinski stated he wanted the space to feel “immersive,” explaining that "when the architecture is specific [...] it creates a film that feels very much in its own kind of hermetically sealed universe that to me sucks you into the space of the film.” He also noted the “parallels between architecture and filmmaking. The script and the blueprint are related.”