Warner Bros. has their sights set on the horror genre in the coming years and has set the release dates for the Mike Flanagan-directed The Shining sequel, Doctor Sleep and the Guillermo del Toro-produced adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches.
Doctor Sleep is set for a release later this year on November 8th, 2019, a few months earlier than the originally projected January 2020 release.
Alex Essoe (Starry Eyes) plays Wendy Torrance, the mother of Danny Torrance, with Carl Lumbly (A Cure for Wellness) taking up the role of Dick Halloran. Ewan McGregor will play an adult version of Danny Torrance, Kyliegh Curran has been cast as Abra Stone, Bruce Greenwood plays the role of Dr. John and Alyn Lind is Snakebite Andi. Doctor Sleep also stars Jocelin Donahue and Rebecca Ferguson.
Synopsis (via Variety): “Doctor Sleep begins as Torrance carries the trauma of the Overlook Hotel into adulthood. He’s become a reflection of his murderous father, with lingering rage and a drinking problem that dulls his pain as well as his “shining” powers. Those powers return when he embraces sobriety and uses his gift to help the dying at a hospice. He establishes a psychic connection with a young girl who shares his extreme abilities, and who is being targeted by a group with similar abilities. They’ve found that their powers grow if they inhale the “steam” that comes off others with the power to shine, when they are suffering painful deaths."
Flanagan directed from a screenplay he rewrote that was originally written by Akiva Goldsman, based on King's 2013 novel.
Additionally, the Robert Zemeckis adaptation of The Witches, set to star Anne Hathaway, will be released on October 16th, 2020.
Hathaway takes on the role of the Grand High Witch in the upcoming film based on Roald Dahl’s 1983 novel, which was also adapted in 1990 by the late Nicolas Roeg. The Grand High Witch was played by Anjelica Huston in that film.
We recently learned the film will be set in the Gothic South in the 1960s with Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron producing.
The film follows a seven-year-old boy who has a run in with real-life witches. Sources close to the project say Zemeckis’ version will be more rooted in the original source material, while the Roeg film was a loose adaptation.