This 1997 miniseries was written and produced by Stephen King himself, motivated by his dissatisfaction with Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation of his novel.

To get Kubrick's approval for a new adaptation closer to the original story, King had to agree in writing to stop publicly criticizing Kubrick's film, except for one allowed comment: his disappointment that Jack Nicholson played Jack Torrance as though already insane before arriving at the Overlook.

Casting the role of Jack Torrance proved very difficult, as many considered actors, including Tim Daly and Gary Sinise, turned it down fearing comparisons to Jack Nicholson's performance; King grew so impatient he threatened to 'wait another 18 years' if the role wasn't filled.

Steven Weber was ultimately cast as Jack Torrance just four days before filming began, on a suggestion from co-star Rebecca De Mornay.

Stephen King himself makes a cameo as Gage Creed, the orchestra conductor, while director Sam Raimi appears briefly as a gas station attendant and several horror writers and filmmakers, including Frank Darabont, cameo in the ballroom scene.

The miniseries was filmed at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, the very hotel that inspired King to write the original novel.

Filming began in March 1996, chosen for being Denver's snowiest month, but the production discovered the hotel sat in a 'snow shadow' with little snowfall, forcing the crew to spend $100,000 on snowmaking machines shipped from Los Angeles.

Producer Mark Carliner attributed a few lucky days of real snowfall during shooting to a ritual performed by a Ute shaman at the highest peak of the Rocky Mountains.

Several cast and crew members, including Cynthia Garris (who played the woman in Room 217) and Courtland Mead's acting coach Dawn Jeffrey-Nelson, reported paranormal experiences occurring at the hotel during filming.

For the makeup of the decayed woman in Room 217, the effects team glued thin shells of Saran Wrap onto the actress with K-Y jelly, added milky flesh tones over it with purple tones underneath, then covered the whole body in thin latex that was partially ripped off for a decayed look.

To make the more than 80 dead extras in the ballroom scene look deceased, makeup artist Bill Corso added black marks to their cheeks and foreheads.

A special-effects-heavy ballroom sequence in which the orchestra conductor and his musicians 'run like tallow' was cut from the final version because director Mick Garris felt it slowed the pacing and felt less grounded in reality than the rest of the story.