Danny Torrance is all grown up. Ewan McGregor is in talks with Warner Bros. to play adult Danny Torrance in Doctor Sleep, the Mike Flanagan-directed continuation of the storyline that began in the Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
The studio put the film on the fast track after the enormous box office success of It, another popular Stephen King property. It was then that Flanagan was chosen to direct the adaptation of the 2013 King novel that picks up the life of Torrance when he is in his 40s and struggling with the same demons of anger and alcoholism that plagued his father.
The novel begins as Torrance carries the trauma of the Overlook Hotel into adulthood. He’s become a reflection of his murderous father, with lingering rage and a drinking problem that dulls his pain as well as his “shining” powers. Those powers return when he embraces sobriety and uses his gift to help the dying at a hospice. He establishes a psychic connection with a young girl who shares his extreme abilities and is being targeted by a scary group with similar abilities. They’ve found that their powers grow if they inhale the “steam” that comes off others with the power to shine, when they are suffering painful deaths.
McGregor hasn’t officially signed on yet but the talks are going well and it looks to be a done deal. Warner Bros. is said to be very excited about the film after Flanagan did a re-write on the script that was originally adapted by Akiva Goldsman.
