Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep is the long-awaited sequel to The Shining.
As The Shining is one of King’s best known properties, there’s an automatic assumption the author’s next book will become a movie as well.
In the meantime, however, Warner Brothers is reportedly “quietly exploring the possibility” of a Shining prequel, although the folks at Collider believe this is a less than stellar idea.
What’s to tell before The Shining? He’s relatively normal, then loses his mind when he gets to the hotel. And yeah, as a reader on Collider commented, you could have other guests at the hotel, but then it could end up being like another King haunted hotel story, 1408.
A number of veteran screenwriters are already reportedly involved in the nascent project including Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Shutter Island), and James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, The Amazing Spider-Man), partnering up with Black Swan producer Bradley Fischer. Apparently this is a whole different shebang than Dr. Sleep, which The Playlist confirms has not been optioned for a movie yet.
As you may recall, King never liked Kubrick’s big screen version of The Shining, and if the author doesn’t like a movie based on his work, you can’t use his name in the advertising in conjunction with the film.
Although it was blasted by the critics when it first hit theaters in the summer of 1980, The Shining has held up very well after all this time. The film isn’t perfect, it’s certainly uneven, but there’s a lot of incredible filmmaking, scares and classic moments that still have great power today.
As for Doctor Sleep, Cinema Blend tells us it will feature Danny Torrance in middle age living in New Hampshire, where he’s using his psychic “shining” powers to ease the dying at the end of their lives. Torrance must also save a twelve year old girl from a group of psychos who have paranormal powers.
Doctor Sleep is slated to hit bookstores on January 15, 2013.
