I have a confession to make. I bought Stephen King’s novel Doctor Sleep as soon as it came out, because I was excited by the idea of a different kind of story involving an adult Danny Torrance, the boy with the Shining who survived the horrific events at the Overlook Hotel. But that book still sits on an ever-growing stack of novels I really want to read, and I still haven’t read it. So I had to take Stephen King’s word for it that it’s different.
But if you’re going to make a film adaptation of said book, and it references events from The Shining, then you’re going to have to reference Stanley Kubrick’s film, even though King hates it. Why? Because King’s own TV adaptation has nowhere near the cultural impact of that film. What I trust is that director Mike Flanagan can thread the needle and do justice to the original novels while creating something new that alludes to both literary and cinematic Overlooks. Just don’t reference Ready Player One.
Doctor Sleep stars Ewan McGregor as Danny Torrance, and opens in the US on November 8.
