In the last couple of years we’ve seen a steady output of adaptations from famed author Stephen King, from It and The Dark Tower to the upcoming Castle Rock television series. And now there is yet another King adaptation on the way from Warner Bros. – Doctor Sleep, the sequel to one of his most famous novels The Shining, with the studio enlisting Mike Flanagan to direct.
Flanagan is no stranger to King’s works, having already adapted Gerald’s Game for Netflix last year. He will pen the script from a draft previously written by Avika Goldsman and will executive produce the film alongside his regular producing partner, Trevor Macy. Vertigo Entertainment’s Jon Berg will also produce while Goldsman will remain onboard as an executive producer.
Doctor Sleep follows an adult Danny Torrance 36 years after the original novel. Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel, where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant shining power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.” There Dan meets Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival.
The Shining was originally adapted in 1980 from WB by Stanely Kubrick with Jack Nicholson starring in the role of Danny’s father, Jack Torrance, Shelley Duvall as his wife Wendy and Danny Lloyd as the young Danny. Whether the Doctor Sleep film will act as a sequel to Kubrick’s film, or make any references at all to the events of Danny’s childhood, remains to be seen.
