Originally published July 1, 2019. Updated August 14, 2019.
Last month brought us the first trailer for Doctor Sleep, Warner Bros.’ upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining, with the trailer featuring a number of flashbacks and nods to the classic Stanley Kubrick film.
During an interview with Digital Spy, director Mike Flanagan has revealed that all of the shots from The Shining seen in the trailer have been recreated by the filmmakers save for one – the blood-soaked elevator scene.
“What’s interesting about the images that you saw is that all of them except for one are images that we created from scratch,” said Flanagan. “We could’ve spent months trying to perfectly create the fluid dynamics of the blood coming out of the elevator doors, but it’s impossible to do. The way that it happened when Kubrick made it, the way the blood wraps and coils down at the edge of the elevator frame and bounces back on the walls – we can’t recreate that. So we had to dig back into the original footage.”
Meanwhile, speaking to Coming Soon, Flanagan revealed that his hope for Doctor Sleep was to honour both the novel and Kubrick’s horror masterpiece. And, while King isn’t a fan of the 1980 movie, Flanagan goes on to add that “both King and the Kubrick Estate liked the film.”
“Doctor Sleep” continues the story of Danny Torrance, 40 years after his terrifying stay at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson and newcomer Kyliegh Curran star in the supernatural thriller, directed by Mike Flanagan, from his own screenplay based upon the novel by Stephen King.
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 is set for release on October 31st and features a cast that also includes Kyliegh Curran, Carl Lumbly, Zahn McClarnon, Emily Alyn Lind, Bruce Greenwood, Jocelin Donahue, Alex Essoe and Cliff Curtis.
