Bryan Cranston Remakes 'The Shining' For A Mountain Dew Super Bowl Commercial

This weekend brings us Super Bowl LIV, and with it will be a bunch of star-studded new commercials pushing all the biggest brands in front of one of the largest television viewing audiences of the year. But in the internet age, it's more important to go viral before the Big Game, and some of this year's biggest commercials are already online. One of them will be of particular interest to fans of Mountain Dew, Bryan Cranston and Stanley Kubrick.

Mountain Dew has just launched their new Mountain Dew Zero Sugar (or MTN DEW Zero Sugar), joining the ever-growing roster of carbonated drinks swapping out sugar for artificial sweeteners. And to give the new soft drink a proper launch, they recruited Bryan Cranston to recreate scenes from The Shining. So instead of Jack Torrance being a murderous psychopath, he just wants his wife to try some of this Mountain Dew Zero Sugar like any sane person would.

Well, Bryan Cranston is certainly giving this one everything he's got. Though not exactly doing a Jack Nicholson impersonation, he's got that wild-eyed instability vibe on lock. Plus, whoever shot this commercial did a nice job perfectly recreating several shots from The Shining, especially the first time Jack swings the axe into the bathroom door.

Playing Jack's wife Wendy is Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross, and she does an outstanding job channeling Shelley Duvall's performance from The Shining. The Emmy winner told Entertainment Weekly that while she did go back and watch the scene in question to help inspired her performance, it wasn't something she had to do repeatedly. Ross said:

"I didn't have to go back and watch a lot because she is etched in my body and mind. Her work throughout her career has been just a big part of what I do. Her face, the fact that she has big eyes... I have big eyes. Like, all of these things. to have the opportunity to reprise such an iconic role was really special and exciting. And I did look back at the movie because, you know, I do my research, but I also felt like once you put that costume on — and I think they did an amazing and impeccable job with that — once you put that on plus the set... everything, the rest kind of falls into place."

Even though you might be put off by The Shining being used to sell soft drinks so shamelessly, how would you feel about The Shining actually being remade? Ross, for one, says she would be happy to star in it if Get Out and Us director Jordan Peele was behind the camera. Peele is mostly preoccupied with directing original horror movies, but he's producing that upcoming remake of Candyman, so maybe it's not out of the realm of possibility...

For what it's worth, I tried Mountain Dew Zero Sugar recently, and while I disagree that it's as good as the original Mountain Dew, as the commercial maniacally suggests, it tastes infinitely better than Diet Mountain Dew. But I'm not sure it's worth all the hubbub of this commercial.