However, the prolific author claims that all of the issues he had with the film has since been reduced with Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of his sequel novel, Doctor Sleep. With Doctor Sleep, Flanagan (Gerald’s Game, The Haunting of Hill House) had the daunting task of making a sequel based on Stephen King’s book, while also continuing the tale of Stanley Kubrick’s movie. And according to King, the directed succeeded with flying colours. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, King had this to say:
I don’t want to get into a big argument about how great the Shining film is that Kubrick did or my feelings about it. All I can say is, Mike took my material, he created a terrific story, people who have seen this movie flip for it, and I flipped for it, too. Because he managed to take my novel of Doctor Sleep, the sequel, and somehow weld it seamlessly to the Kubrick version of The Shining, the movie. So, yeah, I liked it a lot. Having seen Doctor Sleep (review will be out tomorrow), I can see why King loves the movie. Flanagan really does go out of his way to “course correct” a lot of the changes Kubrick made, while also honouring his work. However, a part of me does wish that Flanagan would have completely ignored the Stanley Kubrick movie and the Overlook Hotel and just focused on making a tighter Doctor Sleep film. Doctor Sleep is currently playing in Malaysian cinemas.
