Stephen King's THE SHINING Sequel DOCTOR SLEEP Being Adapted For Film By Akiva Goldsman
We all knew it was only a matter of time before Stephen King's Doctor Sleep was put into development for a feature film. The book is a sequel to King's classic The Shining and according to The Tracking Board, Warner Bros. has hired screenwriter Akiva Goldsman to adapt it for the big screen.
The Shining centers on Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their son Danny as they live in the haunted Overlook Hotel during the winter season to take care of it. It's there that the hotel possesses Jack and he slowly becomes possessed by the hotel and nightmarishly torments his wife and kid.
Doctor Sleep takes place several years after the events that took place at the Overlook Hotel. It focuses on Jack's son Danny who is now a middle-aged man. He is still traumatized by what happened at the hotel all those years ago and he throughout his life he had to deal with anger management and alcoholism issues. However, in an effort to get his life back together, he gives up drinking and settles down in a small town in New Hampshire. It is at this point in his life where his psychic abilities start to resurface and he develops a psychic link with a 12-year-old girl named Abra Stone. Turns out this girl's life is being threatened by a tribe of paranormals who suck the energy from people. They are led by a man named Rose the Hat and Danny has to save her from them.
Warner Bros. has also been developing a prequel film called Overlook Hotel, but I haven't heard much about that project since Mark Romanek was set to direct it. That movie would be based on King's original prologue to The Shining, which was cut from the book prior to its publication in 1977. It would "tell the origin story of the haunted hotel through the eyes of its first owner, Bob T. Watson, a robber baron at the turn of the 20th century."
Goldsman seems like a great fit for the project as he is very familiar with kings work and worked on the big screen adaptation of The Dark Tower book series for years. King is an executive producer on the project. I thought the book was great and I'm excited to see how the movie turns out.
Warner Bros. is also developing big screen adaptations of King's The Stand and IT.