Stephen King talks about the sequel to "The Shining"

[Cary Kollins]

So apparently the sequel to The Shining is coming out this September and it's going to be titled "Doctor Sleep". There is an in-depth interview with EW in which King gives out lots of details. I stopped reading about halfway through because I don't want to spoil the story, but it sounds like it'll be real good.

Here is a little excerpt:

Doctor Sleep finds Dan Torrance as kind of a loner, working with terminally ill patients. His shining comes in very handy there, but what sparked you to the idea he would end up in a place like that?

Probably five years ago, I saw this piece on one of those morning news shows about a pet cat at a hospice, and according to this story the cat knew before anybody else when somebody was going to die. The cat would go into the room, curl up on the bed, and the people never seemed to mind. Then those people died. I thought to myself: ‘I want to write a story about that.’ And then I made the connection with Danny Torrance as an adult, working in a hospice. I thought: ‘That’s it. I’m gonna write this book.’

http://shelf-life.ew.com/2013/02/01/stephen-king-the-shining-doctor-sleep-preview/

[Doyle]

Looking forward to this. I actually wasn't a huge fan of the book but loved the movie.

[Scrumtrilescent]

OMG IT'S THE CAT!!!!111111111

[Mr. Scot]

Looking forward to this. I actually wasn't a huge fan of the book but loved the movie.

King actually hated the movie, or at least Jack Nicholson's performance.

[Doyle]

King actually hated the movie, or at least Jack Nicholson's performance.

Which is funny because most of the movies based on his books are complete garbage. I know there are some exceptions but for the most part they are pretty bad.

[Dpantherman]

Which is funny because most of the movies based on his books are complete garbage. I know there are some exceptions but for the most part they are pretty bad.

like IT?

[Guest]

I've read pretty much everything King has written, and I agree most movies made from his novels are crap. The exception is The Shining.

[TheRed]

King actually hated the movie, or at least Jack Nicholson's performance.

I never knew that. I like Stephen King but this is an awful idea and far too late at this point.

He should be thanking Stanley Kubrick for that legendary film, not taking a dump on his memory.

[Doyle]

like IT?

The reverse in that case. I liked the book, hated the movie.

[Cary Kollins]

IT freaked me the F out for a few years when I was really young.

Kubrick took King's version of "The Shining" and made it his own. Kubrick was a cinematic genius and made the film he wanted to make. IIRC, the made for TV version of TS was much more faithful to the book.

The Shining film is one of my favorite movies of all time.

[Panthro]

OMG IT'S THE CAT!!!!111111111

holy fucjing cat batman

[TANTRIC-NINJA]

what no Maximum-er overdriver-er? Childeren of the Cornier, CUJOs

[Mr. Scot]

Some years back, ABC essentially handed King a blank check and said "choose any of your works and we'll make it into a miniseries for you."

With blank check in hand, he chose a do-over of The Shining.

That oughtta tell ya how much he hated the movie, and more specifically, Jack Nicholson's performance.

King's complaint about Nicholson was that he wasn't believable as a good guy turning bad. He came off as a bad guy from the get go. And honestly, I'll give him that. To fix it, he chose a highly likable actor for the role of the ultimately mad father. It was Steven Weber (Wings) who ended up playing bad dad Jsck while the (much hotter than Shelley Duvall) Rebecca DeMornay was cast as Wendy. Courtland Mead was the kid.

King also chose to create the living topiaries from the book rather than use the jedge maze. For my part, I thought that was a mistake. The maze was way more creepy.

Regarding King in general, my long criticism of him has been that he comes up with great premises for books, but he rarely finds a good way to end them, Generally speaking, his endings flat out suck.

[Scrumtrilescent]

19.