The axe wielded by Jack Nicholson as he delivered his chillingly manic line “Here’s Johnny!” in the 1980 horror movie The Shining is to go on sale. Nicholson’s character, Jack Torrance, uses the axe to hack out an opening in a locked door protecting his terrified wife Wendy, played by Shelley Duvall. It is also the murder weapon in the killing of Scatman Crothers’ character, Dick Hallorann.
One of cinema’s most famous axes could be yours for a list price of between £30,000 and £50,000. It is one of hundreds of items in the first auction of the personal archive of The Shining’s influential director, Stanley Kubrick, who died in 1999. The sale includes several other lots from the film, including two sky-blue dresses worn by the twin sisters Alexa and Alexie Grady.
They appear in the frocks in a memorable scene when they invite Torrance’s son, Danny, to “come play with us” as he pedals on his tricycle through the corridors of the Overlook Hotel. The boy’s trike is not part of the sale, but a clapperboard used in the film is one of four from Kubrick’s movies to go under the hammer. The others are are from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 1975 historical drama Barry Lyndon and Kubrick’s last film, Eyes Wide Shut.
The auction will take place at Bonhams in London on 3 February, after public exhibitions that start next week at Bonhams in New York, before going on to Los Angeles, Paris and then London on 18 January. The lot expected to fetch the highest price is the model of a cosmic foetus that appears in the final scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Also known as the “star child prop” it is predicted to fetch as much as £800,000.
Justifying the list price, Claire Tole-Moir, the head of popular culture at Bonhams, said: “It is the final, enigmatic image of one of cinema’s most influential science fiction films. It represents evolution, new beginnings, naivety and ambiguity. 2001: A Space Odyssey is not just one of Kubrick’s most finest films, it is a cinematic masterpiece, and so to be able to offer this iconic prop from the final scene of the film is incredibly exciting.” She said the auction gave “fans, collectors and historians the chance to own a piece of this remarkable collection” and that the exhibitions were “a landmark moment to get closer to some of the most iconic films ever made”. Tole-Moir’s favourite items in the auction are Kubrick film scripts, complete with his personal annotations, drawings and alternative scenes.
She said: “His scripts are incredibly special … providing us with an exciting insight into Stanley’s creative journey whilst making some of his most famous films such as The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Lolita among others.” There is also Kubrick’s personal script from his 1960 film Spartacus. The Guardian’s obituary of Kubrick describes him as enigmatic, obsessive and dictatorial, and his movies as deeply pessimistic. The auction includes his director’s chair, valued at up to £12,000.
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