Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’ Sequel ‘Doctor Sleep’ Gets a Debut Trailer

On the long list of films and stories that didn't need a sequel, The Shining would have to rank pretty high. Both Stephen King's original novel and Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation are outstanding, self-contained stories that didn't really leave the door open for a sequel of any sort.

However, Stephen King is nothing if not prolific, so it's not a total surprise he eventually got around to crafting a sequel in book form titled Doctor Sleep. Following the continuing adventures of Danny Torrance, now an alcoholic middle aged man, the book is now being turned into a film starring Ewan McGregor that features more than a few overt visual nods to Kubrick's The Shining.

This begs the question, is this a sequel to the movie or to the book? Kubrick famously changed a lot of details in King's original story, including killing off Overlook caretaker Dick Halloran, who appears as a character in the Doctor Sleep book. Being a movie, it would seem strange not to have any sort of visual reference to the Kubrick film, considering how iconic it has become, but the more you hedge toward being a sequel to the film, the further away from the book you begin to drift.

It's all very fascinating and I'm sure it will work as both an adaptation of King's book as well as a sequel to Kubrick's film, but I'm still not sure we needed either of those things. Doctor Sleep opens in theaters across North America on November 9.