Filmmaker Mike Flanagan has announced that the home entertainment release of this year’s Stephen King adaptation Doctor Sleep is set to include an extended Director’s Cut of The Shining follow-up, which runs for 180 minutes – 28 minutes longer than the theatrical release. Check out Flanagan’s tweet here:
SEE ALSO: Exclusive Interview – Doctor Sleep composers The Newton Brothers talk Mike Flanagan and The Shining
The Director’s Cut of #DoctorSleep (TRT 180 mins) lands on Digital (4K streaming) 1/21, and on Blu-ray (with 4K UHD Theatrical Cut) on 2/4. Hope you enjoy! pic.twitter.com/3hxyr6kCEk
— Mike Flanagan (@flanaganfilm) December 19, 2019
“I’m really excited that WB let me create this cut, much less release it,” Flanagan tells Collider. “They really supported it – to the point that they made sure all of the new material with VFX was fully finished, additional score was composed and orchestrated just for this cut, and we did a full mix as well. They really let us do this right – it’s a finished, complete, fully polished new cut of the movie. Nothing in it is temp.”
“There is new material throughout the whole film,” he continues. “Some of it is brand new stuff that was never included in the theatrical cut, and there’s also a handful of extended (or altered) scenes as well. There are some big new scenes, for sure. I don’t want to spoil any of that, but I can say that there is new material throughout (including in the final act at the Overlook). Some of my favorite stuff involved Young Danny and Wendy (there’s some terrific material with Alex Essoe that I’m thrilled is restored here), and will be familiar to fans of the book. There’s also a fair amount of new stuff involving young Abra in the film’s first act, learning about her shine, and how it affects her parents.”
What did you make of Doctor Sleep? Are you looking forward to the Director’s Cut? Let us know in the comments below or on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Dan Torrance has fought to find some semblance of peace. But that peace is shattered when he encounters Abra, a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the “shine.” Instinctively recognizing that Dan shares her power, Abra has sought him out, desperate for his help against the merciless Rose the Hat and her followers, The True Knot, who feed off the shine of innocents in their quest for immortality.
Forming an unlikely alliance, Dan and Abra engage in a brutal life-or-death battle with Rose. Abra’s innocence and fearless embrace of her shine compel Dan to call upon his own powers as never before—at once facing his fears and reawakening the ghosts of the past.
Doctor Sleep features a cast that also includes Ewan McGregor, Kyliegh Curran, Carl Lumbly, Zahn McClarnon, Emily Alyn Lind, Bruce Greenwood, Jocelin Donahue, Alex Essoe and Cliff Curtis.
