Doctor Sleep director talks the importance of revisiting the Overlook Hotel

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

This fall, audiences will get to travel back to the world of Stephen King’s THE SHINING with the film adaptation of the follow-up story, DOCTOR SLEEP, which centers on a now-grown Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) as he confronts his terrifying past. Both an adaptation of the book and a sequel to the famous Stanley Kubrick film (which King famously dislikes), the trailer perhaps threw fans for a loop when it showed scenes that will take us back to the iconic Overlook Hotel, and director Mike Flanagan opened up about why his movie needed to go back to the most wicked of all inns.

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Per the footage from the first trailer we see the movie will have some strong connections to the 1980 film version of THE SHINING, calling back to young Danny riding his bike around the halls, the blood rushing out as the elevator doors open, and the older Danny looking through the door his father Jack (Jack Nicholson) chopped through. Flanagan spoke with reporters during a set visit last fall (via CinemaBlend), and talked about how going back to the Overlook was all about honoring both King and Kubrick’s work:

For us, and I think for a lot of the readers, when I first read the book, I loved what he did with [Danny Torrance], and I loved revisiting that universe. But I just had this real ache to go back to the Overlook. I was really bummed when the book didn't do that. And so for us, it was a question of, ‘How do we try to combine those two worlds in a way that's going to make Stephen feel really satisfied with what we did and also honor the legacy of the Kubrick film and what it means to cinephiles?’

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The Overlook is undoubtedly one of the most famous locations in all movie history, with its uniquely designed carpets, its impressive garden mazes, and with an endless atmosphere of dread permeating every corridor. Bringing it back will be a real treat for cinephiles, and in knowing that Flanagan sought King’s blessing, knowing a “No” answer would mean the end of the project.

[The Shining is,] I think, one of the most influential, if not the most influential horror movie of all time. It would seem like such a wasted opportunity to revisit Dan Torrance and not revisit the Overlook Hotel. So that was a tough call and we needed to get Stephen on board. But when we explained how we wanted to do it, he actually was really enthusiastic about it. Which was a pleasant surprise. If he had not wanted to do that, we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't have done the movie.

As a fan of THE SHINING, part of what makes the first trailer for SLEEP so cool are the ominous callbacks to the Kubrick film, which no doubt sparked a wave of curiosity in fans who may be familiar with that movie, but not so much this sequel story. How much of the movie takes us back to the Overlook remains to be seen, but it could be enough to make you wonder if a digitally-rendered Nicholson is going to be running around with ax somewhere. 

DOCTOR SLEEP is in theaters November 8.