Doctor Sleep is nobody’s favorite Stephen King book. A sequel to King’s seminal The Shining, it follows an adult Danny Torrance as he bonds with a young girl who also has “the shine” and squares off against a roving band of horny, “quasi-immortal” carnies led by Rose the Hat and her right-hand man, Crow Daddy.
Rebecca Ferguson has already been announced for the role of Rose, and now Variety reports that we now have our Daddy in Zahn McClarnon, a fantastic actor who, despite being a 30-year vet of Hollywood, has only recently begun to raise eyebrows due to his recent roles on FX’s Fargo and HBO’s Westworld, where he ably carried an entire episode as Native American host Akecheta. The cast also includes Ewan McGregor as Danny.
(Read: Winning Gerald’s Game: Director Mike Flanagan on Stephen King and Adapting the Impossible)
That’s not the only bit of Doctor Sleep casting news. Deadline reports that the film has also found actors for The Shining‘s other two crossovers, Wendy Torrance and Dick Halloran, who, if you’ve only seen Stanley Kubrick’s movie, actually doesn’t die in the book. Carl Lumbly (Supergirl, Alias) is slated to play Halloran, while Alex Essoe (Starry Eyes) will play Wendy; these will be younger versions of the characters, as the story begins while Danny is still a child. Shelley Duvall and Scatman Crothers played the roles in Kubrick’s adaptation.
Mike Flanagan, who directed the excellent Netflix adaptation of King’s Gerald’s Game, is directing Doctor Sleep, and also rewrote a script from famed Hollywood Hack Akiva Goldsman. It currently has a tentative release date of January 24th, 2020.
Stay tuned to The Losers’ Club, our Stephen King podcast, where we’ll soon discuss this development and all others in the King universe.
