Mike Flanagan discusses Doctor Sleep’s connection to Kubrick’s The Shining

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Yesterday we shared the trailer for director Mike Flanagan's upcoming film DOCTOR SLEEP, which is an adaptation of Stephen King's sequel to his classic novel THE SHINING. It's a well known fact that King is not a fan of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film version of THE SHINING (he even scripted a mini-series remake in '97 to make up for it), so Flanagan could have tried to distance his film from Kubrick's. Instead, imagery in the trailer made it clear that this is definitely a follow-up to THE SHINING as filtered through Kubrick.

Speaking with a group of journalists that included Collider's Haleigh Foutch, Flanagan confirmed that DOCTOR SLEEP is a sequel to both King's THE SHINING and Kubrick's.

It is an adaptation of the novel Doctor Sleep, which is Stephen King’s sequel to his novel, The Shining. But this also exists very much in the same cinematic universe that Kubrick established in his adaptation of The Shining. Reconciling those three, at times very different, sources has been the most challenging and thrilling part of this creatively for us. I went back to the book first and the big conversation that we had to have was about whether or not we could still do a faithful adaptation of the novel as King has laid it out while inhabiting the universe that Kubrick had created. And that was a conversation that we had to have with Stephen King to kick the whole thing off. And if that conversation hadn’t gone the way it went, we wouldn’t have done the film."

Flanagan acknowledged that King's opinions about Kubrick's film are "complicated", 

Complicated to the point that if you’ve read the book, you know that he actively and intentionally ignored kind of everything that Kubrick had changed about his novel and kind of defiantly said, ‘Nope, this exists completely outside of the Kubrick universe.' We had to go to King and explain how — and some of that amounts to very practical questions about certain characters who are alive in the novel The Shining who are not alive by the end of the film — how to deal with that."

The director, who also wrote the screenplay adaptation for DOCTOR SLEEP, said the pitches to King went over "surprisingly well", and that the author ended up giving him not only his blessing to blend the DOCTOR SLEEP story with Kubrick's version of THE SHINING, but also his encouragement.

Flanagan and the crew were then able to recreate Kubrick's Overlook Hotel using archived materials provided by the Kubrick estate. But while the events of THE SHINING had an impact that is felt in DOCTOR SLEEP, Flanagan is also sure to remind everyone that the film tells its own story that is decades removed from what happened in THE SHINING. He wasn't trying to replicate Kubrick's style while telling that story; as he says, that would be impossible.

DOCTOR SLEEP stars Ewan McGregor as the adult Danny Torrance and has the following synopsis: 

Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Dan Torrance has fought to find some semblance of peace. But that peace is shattered when he encounters Abra, a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the “shine.” Instinctively recognizing that Dan shares her power, Abra has sought him out, desperate for his help against the merciless Rose the Hat and her followers, The True Knot, who feed off the shine of innocents in their quest for immortality.

Forming an unlikely alliance, Dan and Abra engage in a brutal life-or-death battle with Rose. Abra’s innocence and fearless embrace of her shine compel Dan to call upon his own powers as never before — at once facing his fears and reawakening the ghosts of the past.

McGregor is joined in the cast by Kyleigh Curran as Abra Stone, Carl Lumbly as Dick Halloran, Alex Essoe as Wendy Torrance, Bruce Greenwood as Danny's friend Dr. John Dalton, Rebecca Ferguson as cult leader Rose the Hat, Zahn McClarnon as her right hand man Crow Daddy, and Jacob Tremblay and Jocelin Donahue in unspecified roles.

DOCTOR SLEEP is set to reach theatres on November 8th.