Doctor Sleep: Ewan McGregor to play Danny Torrence in The Shining sequel

Gerald's Game director Mike Flanagan will helm the project

Ewan McGregor at the New York Beauty and the Beast premiere (Getty)

Almost 40 years after Stanley Kubrick’s famous adaptation of The Shining reached cinemas and the sequel, Doctor Sleep, has been announced.

Adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name, Variety reports that Ewan McGregor will play Danny Torrance, the son of Jack Nicholson’s iconic character Jack Torrance. King has apparently given the casting his blessing.

Mike Flanagan, who directed the Netflix adaptation of King’s Gerald’s Game, will helm the movie, with producing partner Trevor Macy and Vertigo Entertainment’s Jon Berg producing.

Doctor Sleep centres on Danny, who continues to be traumatised by the events of Overlook Hotel all these years later. Having become an alcoholic to suppress the effects of the ‘shining’ power, the character eventually ends up using those powers to establish a connection with a similarly powered young girl, only to find that a group of people are hunting their kind.

The report adds that, since the success of fellow King adaptation It last year, every studio with the rights to stories by the author has fast-tracked producing them. Warner Bros has had both Doctor Sleep and The Shining prequel Overlook Hotel in development for some time, but has made them a priority.

Flanagan’s last adaptation of a King novel was well received by the author himself, the director telling The Independent: “He loved the film. I literally printed his email out and framed it and put it in the living room.” Read the full interview on Gerald’s Game here.