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'The Shining' movie sequel 'Doctor Sleep' has found its lead star

And he's Stephen King-approved this time

'The Shining' movie sequel 'Doctor Sleep' has found its lead star
14 June 2018

Bet you ten actual quid that you didn’t know there was a sequel to The Shining. Hand it over, you loser, because there is - it’s only in book form at the moment, but it’ll soon be in film form, the best form.

The book, called Doctor Sleep, takes place 36 years after that slag smashed open them bathroom doors and freaked his nut out, and follows a now-grown-up Danny Torrance (Jack Nicholson’s tricycle-riding, knife-holding, door-painting son in the original), who works in a nursing home, using his special powers to aid the dying. 

Obviously, this being a Stephen King novel, things rapidly hit the proverbial turd-fan, and battles for souls commence. Love a good battle for a soul.



Set to play adult Danny is Ewan McGregor - everyone’s favourite bearded Scotsman, and a relative stranger to horror (Nightwatch is about his only credit). But hey, he’s been approved by Stephen King himself, who was famously unhappy with Jack Nicholson’s casting in the original The Shining - in fact, he wasn’t a big fan of the film overall. Strange, considering it’s one of his best-received film adaptations.

Ewan McGregor there - he’ll probably look a bit scarier than that in the film


Read more: 20 things you (probably) didn’t know about Stephen King


The movie will be directed by Mike Flanagan - who directed the other King adaptation Gerald’s Game (the one about the sex-game gone wrong, that you may or may not have seen on Netflix) - and written by Flanagan and Akiva Goldsman (erm, Transformers: The Last Knight).

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*WHAT I’VE DONE THERE IS A JOKE ABOUT THAT BIT IN THE SHINING WHEN DANNY WRITES ‘MURDER’ BACKWARDS ON A DOOR HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT

(Image: Warner Bros)