Stephen King’s novels have been loved for featuring the best horror elements that will genuinely make you scared. Most of his novels have been adapted into films, including ‘Doctor Sleep’, which was released in 2019. It was a sequel to ‘The Shining’, which was released in 1980 and was also an adaptation of King’s novel.
Before its release, ‘Doctor Sleep’ producers were confident that the film will be loved by everyone. However, the results turned out to be the opposite as it grossed only $72 million at the box office and there was a major criticism of its length. Following the disappointing box office results, the future of a sequel remains unconfirmed.
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A Sequel Was In Development Before The Release Of ‘Doctor Sleep’
As mentioned earlier, Warner Bros. had a lot of confidence in ‘Doctor Sleep’ and they even approached director Mike Flanagan for a sequel called ‘Hallorann‘. The film was supposed to focus on Dick Hallorann but further details on the plot were not revealed by the makers.
Flanagan mentioned in an interview that he had discussions with Stephen King and asked him if he had a story idea for Abra Stone. Moreover, Flanagan had already helmed the Netflix film, ‘Gerald’s Game’, and this made the collaboration possible.
Meanwhile, the ending of ‘Doctor Sleep’ left open the possibility of a sequel and there are a lot of options on how the producers can decide to take the story forward. However, everything is speculation for now and because it has been only four years, we can expect a confirmation sometime in the future.
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What Would Have Been The Plot Of ‘Hallorann’?
Mike Flanagan posted a tweet in 2022 where he stated that the box office performance of ‘Doctor Sleep’ was not up to the mark and this is the reason why Warner Bros. was not interested in a sequel. Flanagan wrote in the tweet that he regrets that a sequel will not happen.
While appearing in ‘ReelBlend‘ podcast in 2020, Flanagan said that the second ‘The Shining’ movie was scheduled to enter development after the completion of ‘Doctor Sleep.’ He said that ‘Hallorann‘ was supposed to be about Dick learning about shining as a young individual.
Flanagan added that the novel featured a prologue for the same in the form of a story about his grandmother and grandfather. The same was mentioned in the first film and the idea was to start the film with Carl Lumbly going to the past and telling this story, which would have brought everyone back to the hotel.
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