Warner Bros. has released a new Doctor Sleep featurette. The latest look at the highly anticipated movie contains all kinds of new footage, along with our first look at the young Danny Torrance. Danny Lloyd played the character in The Shining and Roger Dale Floyd takes on the role for the upcoming movie. Ewan McGregor plays the adult version of Danny. Torrance is still scarred from his experience at the Overlook and is fighting for some peace.
Stephen King says, "I always wondered what happened to Danny when he grew up." King is referring to Danny Torrance, the child from The Shining, who just happens to have psychic powers. Doctor Sleep is Danny's journey, which King felt was a worthy story to tell. As it turns out, Stephen King fans feel the same way and many are looking forward to the movie, which opens in theaters next month.
In the Doctor Sleep featurette, director Mike Flanagan reveals, "Danny Torrance is still being haunted by the events that took place at the Overlook Hotel." This all makes sense and falls in line with what we know about Danny Torrance in the present. Danny is dealing with the same addiction that sent his father, Jack, down a long spiral of madness and violence. Flanagan had this to say.
"'The shining' refers to psychic ability, the people who actually affect the physical world with their thoughts, read the minds of others. Danny is so traumatized by what he's been through, he has no idea how to deal with this."
Ewan McGregor shed some more light on what it's like to be the adult version of Danny Torrance. "Dan Torrance's philosophy early on in the story is not to use the shining," says McGregor. "He's drunk to suppress the horrible visitations, the spirits that are from the Overlook Hotel." This makes sense, but Danny is going to have a lot more than he bargained for when he meets up with Abra, a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the "shine." Abra seeks him out for his help against the "merciless Rose the Hat and her followers, The True Knot, who feed off the shine of innocents in their quest for immortality."
Doctor Sleep hits theaters on November 8th. Out of anything, potential viewers should know that this is a story that Stephen King felt could be told. That's all we really need to know. In addition to Ewan McGregor and Roger Dale Floyd, the movie also stars Doctor Sleep stars Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat, and Kyliegh Curran, in her major feature film debut, as Abra. Carl Lumbly, Zahn McClarnon, Emily Alyn Lind, Bruce Greenwood, Jocelin Donahue, Alex Essoe, and Cliff Curtis also star.