In September 2013, Stephen King released his novel Doctor Sleep. And for those who don’t know it, it works as a sequel from The Shining, published in 1977 which was one of his most acclaimed works, in part thanks to that fantastic movie adaptation Stanley Kubrick made, The Shining (1980). Allegedly, Stephen King first got the idea for Doctor Sleep in 1998 at a book signing when somebody asked him what happened to Danny Torrance. This was a question King had often asked himself as well as what would have happened to Jack Torrance had he found AA. King started thinking about how old Danny was and where was Wendy now and decided to find the answers with a sequel. But it was a tall order. He considered Doctor Sleep the true history of the Torrance family.
And a few years later, the Hollywood machinery started to function to produce the film adaptation of the novel, Doctor Sleep (2019). Writer Stephen King described the plot for the movie: On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless-mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and tween Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the steam that children with the Shining produce when they are slowly tortured to death. 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. Then Dan meets the evanescent 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.
Mike Flanagan, known for being responsible of interesting horror flicks Oculus (2013), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), Before I Wake (2016), Hush (2016) and another Stephen King movie adaptation Gerald’s Game (2017), has been in charge of writing the screenplay and directing the movie. Ewan McGregor was the chosen one to incarnate Danny Torrance. With him, Rebecca Ferguson, Jacob Tremblay, Zahn McClarnon, Bruce Greenwood, Carel Struycken, Emily Alyn Lind, Jocelin Donahue, Nicholas Pryor, Carl Lumbly, Chelsea Talmadge, Selena Anduze, Catherine Parker, Bethany Anne Lind and Robert Longstreet also star.
Doctor Sleep (2019) is currently in post-production and is scheduled to open in the UK on the 31st of October, and in the USA and other territories later in November. Yesterday Warner Bros. released the first trailer for the movie and you can watch it here:
