Mike Flanagan Set to Direct ‘The Shining’ Sequel, ‘Doctor Sleep’

According to Deadline, Mike Flanagan has been hired to direct the sequel to the 2013 Stephen King novel, Doctor Sleep. The book tells the story of a grownup Danny Torrance who is known for saying “REDRUM” in The Shining, and it picks up as he is struggling with the same alcoholic issues his father suffered from.

The script has been adapted by Akiva Goldsman, but Flanagan is working on a re-write. There is no other info yet regarding casting or any possible release date. Flanagan had previously directed hit films such as Oculus and even King’s own Gerald’s Game, so he isn’t new to the horror genre.

King’s 1977 book, The Shining, was adapted to film and directed by Stanley Kubrick in what is now considered a horror classic. However, Kubrick’s version deviated a lot from the book. It will be interesting to see if Flanagan takes his film version of the book’s continuation closer to a direct sequel to Kubrick’s film, or if he keeps Doctor Sleep more loyal to its source material. PopHorror will keep you posted here for any updates.

Here is the synopsis for Doctor Sleep:

Stephen King returns to the character and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance and the very special twelve-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals. 

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 spunky twelve-year-old 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. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of devoted readers of The Shining and satisfy anyone new to this icon in the King canon.

Are you excited to see Doctor Sleep on the big screen? What are your thoughts on The Shining? Let us know in the comments below!

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