Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan confirmed on Twitter that the planned sequel to his previous 2019 prequel, The Shining, is officially dead. The film maker cited the poor box office performance of “Doctor Sleep” as the main reason Warner Bros. did not advance. Moving forward with a second film, “The Shining,” this film focused on the character of Dick Halloran (played as Stanley Kubrick. The Scatman Crothers movie and in Karl Lumbley’s “Doctor Sleep.”
“We were so close,” Flanagan wrote on Twitter about the making of the Dick Halloran movie. “I will always regret that this didn’t happen.”
Flanagan also shared a fan-made poster of the canceled second “The Shining” prequel. When asked by a user why the follow-up to “Doctor Sleep” was not done, Flanagan replied, “Because of the box office performance of ‘Doctor Sleep’, Warner Bros. chose not to continue with it. They control the rights, so that was the case.”
Doctor Sleep, based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name and starring Ewan McGregor as an older Danny Torrance, opened in theaters in October 2019 to receive mixed reviews but disappointing box office numbers. The film opened for just $14 million at the domestic box office and grossed $31 million, well below the reported production budget of $45 million. Worldwide, the movie “Doctor Sleep” earned only $72 million.
Flanagan revealed in 2020 that his second movie, “The Shining,” was supposed to be in development after he wrapped “Doctor Sleep,” saying ReelBlend Podcast (Across collider), “Halloran has always been about Dick as a younger man learning about glossiness. Doctor Sleep makes a perfect introduction to it with the story of his grandmother and grandfather. He tells little about him in this [movie]. But the idea was to open up with him as Karl Lumbley, and then find a way to go back in time and tell this other story that will inevitably take us back pretty much the way ‘Doctor Sleep’ did. To a familiar hotel.”
Flanagan’s Dick Hallorann wasn’t the only project linked to “The Shining” to be killed after “Doctor Sleep” failed at the box office. A long-running series in action set at the Overlook Hotel was initially set to move forward as the original HBO Max release but was officially dropped in 2021.
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