The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep is getting a film adaptation

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

DOCTOR SLEEP, Stephen King's sequel to his iconic novel THE SHINING, was published in 2013, thirty-six years after its 1977 predecessor. Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of THE SHINING was released in 1980, so it would be a perfect parallel if the cinematic adaptation of DOCTOR SLEEP were to be released in 2016. That's not going to happen, but we can settle for the fact that an adaptation of the sequel is now in development.

Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, whose career has ranged from the lows of BATMAN & ROBIN to the highs of winning an Oscar for A BEAUTIFUL MIND, is writing the script, which will pick up years after the horrible events depicted in THE SHINING and centers on an adult Danny Torrance, 

who is still traumatized. He has followed in his father’s footsteps and has problems with anger management and alcoholism. He soon gives up drinking and settles in a small town in New Hampshire. While there, his psychic abilities start to resurface and he develops a psychic link with a 12-year-old girl named Abra Stone who he must save after he discovers her life is being threatened by a tribe of paranormals led by a man named Rose the Hat.

The project is set up at Warner Bros., the studio that released Kubrick's THE SHINING. King was, as everyone knows, not very fond of that take on his source material (so he scripted a mini-series remake in 1997), but the author will be serving as an executive producer on DOCTOR SLEEP. 

Goldsman is also one of the people helping shepherd the big screen adaptation of King's THE DARK TOWER into production.