Filmmaker Mike Flanagan was on the Warner Bros. mint to talk with producers about DC Comics superheroes . He leave with a project so bighearted , not even Superman could handle it .
That task was to adaptStephen King ’s Christian Bible , Doctor Sleep . Flanagan hadadapted King study ’s beforebut this was different . Doctor Sleep is the sequel to King ’s classic novel , The Shining , which Stanley Kubrick adapted into one of the best horror films ever , also called The shine . Warner Bros. had the rights but no idea what to do with it — that is , until Flanagan sit down to talk about funny book character .
Below is our full interview with the writer and manager of the unexampled film , which open Friday . In our conversation , Flanagan tells the report of how he found himself on the project , how he convinced King to permit him change the novel , what it was like deal with the Kubrick estate , and the ridiculous stress of try out to be close to both virtuoso , while at the same time makinga successful Netflix serial .
Ewan McGregor stars in Doctor Sleep.Photo: (Warner Bros.)
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io9 : The press notes say you get Doctor Sleep after mentioning it in another meeting that was n’t about Doctor Sleep . How did that all work ?
Mike Flanagan : Oh , the coming together was n’t even about a specific movie . It was just a cosmopolitan meeting with Jon Berg to talk about DC . And I take general meetings all the clock time . There ’s never really a undertaking on the board . It ’s commonly just a form of a “ Hey get to lie with you ” talk in very broad solidus and see if anything kind of comes out of it .
Flanagan on set with McGregor and Cliff Curtis.Photo: (Warner Bros.)
io9 : That ’s amazing . Did you hump at that time you ’d conflate the ledger and the movie or did that derive later ?
Flanagan : No , that waskind of my whole auction pitch . I read , “ Look , I think the way to do this is you have to be as close as potential to Doctor Sleep . ” I reckon people get in trouble the further away they get from King source textile . And I say that just as a immense King fan . I said the conjuring trick is you have to do what the novel did n’t do , which is to allow the story exist within the cinematic universe that was established by Stanley Kubrick and let it be a celebration of both . And he said , “ How do you do that ? ” And I sound out , “ I recollect it ’s about the termination . I intend it ’s about where you set the end of the film . ” And I think it ’s going to be , for whoever would examine to do that , it would beone of the most daunting thingsthey could ever attempt to do . And I did n’t opine it would be me . But here we are .
io9 : So what were the grownup challenges in blend in the Overlook and Kubrick film constituent into the King novel ?
Flanagan talking to star Kyliegh Curran.Photo: (Warner Bros.)
Flanagan : Well , it was always essay to protect the aim and the character that Stephen King created while being as reverent to Kubrick as potential . And , there are these persistence way out you have to get by with between them — where Kubrick and King had made such dissimilar decisions that you have to decide Brobdingnagian interrogative , like is Dick Hallorann alive or drained . [ But ] that was n’t the tough part . The toilsome part was the little things . I had a much gruelling sentence figuring out what color the typewriter was in the Colorado lounge because Kubrick had more than one . And that question of what color is the typewriter in The Shining , when you seem back at the movie , there ’s more than one answer that is correct to that question . And Kubrick just proceed . He did n’t give care about the continuity matter . It was niggling details like that I found to be the most torturing .
The big motion like Hallorann and the Overlook itself , that was just about dedication . And that was just about saying , “ Ok , well , Kubrick killed Hallorann . So have ’s say Hallorann is dead . How do I protect the accurate same scenes that he has with Danny in the Doctor Sleep novel ? ” Why ca n’t he have them as a ghostwriter ? Is n’t that kind of absolutely within the DNA of The Shining ? So the scenes are actually unaltered . The only affair that was neuter was whether he was live or dead when he say what he said . That was n’t too bad . It was all the small stuff and nonsense that drive me crazy .
io9 : You talked about how daunting you think this would be . So did you have to shut out the pressure or did you waken up every morning guess about like , “ Oh my God , I ’m make a continuation to The polishing , what am I ’m doing ? ”
This is an image from Doctor Sleep, not The Shining.Photo: (Warner Bros.)
Flanagan : I woke up every forenoon panicked . I still kind of do . I ’d get laid to say that I rose above it , but I never did . I sense well though , I plant , if I did n’t call it “ a sequel to The Shining ” in my own head , if I looked at the motion picture as adescendent of The Shiningor as a child or the son of The Shining and said , “ It ’s a kid . It ’s the product of two parents . And it has their genetics work up into it . And those parent are King and Kubrick . And we have to honor our parents . ” But the movie still has to determine its own way in the universe . That made me feel undecomposed . But I still always find like I was about to throw up . It was the most pressure I ’ve ever been under .
io9 : at last we know that Stephen King sign off on this , and you mentioned he heard about you reasonably early , but how did the ultimate mold of approval fall out ? Did you send him a script , portray it to him ? How did it do work ?
Flanagan : I want to get his favourable reception to proceed with putting the Overlook into the script first . And he initially suppose , “ I do n’t be intimate . ” And I said , “ Well , look , I imagine there ’s no mode not to , given the omnipresence of Kubrick ’s film . ” But I pitched him on one specific scene that happens inside the Overlook toward the end of the film . And , if you see the movie , you fuck what I ’m talking about . It ’s just what you think it is . And I gear him that scene and he came back and he suppose , “ Okay , do that . ” And he gave his grace to continue with that kind of hybridization . And if he had n’t , I would not have made the film .
But then I wrote the script and then sent it to him . And I was dying . I was hold my breath , waiting for him to respond . And he came back and he order , “ face , I really wish this . I really love this . ” In fact , he say , “ The ending , you switch the ending . ” I said , “ Yes I did ! I change the ending . I ’m sorry ! ” But I changed it in ways to try out to get back to the end of the novel The Shining . To attempt to get back to thing that Kubrick had jettisoned , that King had always want . I say , “ mayhap I can give you the ending you did n’t get from Kubrick ? ” And he aver , “ Look , I really like it . I sustain this . I like the draught very much . I just feel like , I like it so [ much ] , I feel like this is the sort of movie studios do n’t often make . ” And I get to say to him , “ Well , queer you should mention that . They greenlit the film this morning . ” And then we were off to the races .
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io9 : And what about the Kubrick estate ? What was their chemical reaction when you were like , “ Hey , I ’m making this movie ” ?
Flanagan : Same affair . The same kind of trepidation . They desire to ensure that Stanley Kubrick ’s legacy is protected . And so do I. And I have to point out , I say , look . I worship Stanley Kubrick . I adore The polishing . It ’s one of the most formative films in my life . I do n’t desire to do anything that ’s going to sully his bequest in any way . So the same affair with King . I just had to say this is what I want to do . This is how I require to keep Kubrick and they got more and more comfortable . They did give us so much . They present us access to so much of his cloth for pull this off . And then , at around the fourth dimension that Stephen King figure the final film , the Kubrick landed estate meet the concluding film , and Stephen King loved it and the Kubrick estate make out it . At that point , I started to lastly not finger like I was about to contrive up . I [ say ] those are the two most authoritative reappraisal this film will ever get . And , if anything else , I can at least kind of sleep tonight bang that they both are happy . That to me was the mission was to examine to conciliate that . And I experience like if we did it even a small bit and then it was worthwhile .
io9 : Because the film is sequel to The polishing , it requires a lot of exposition . Who the Torrances are , what the Overlook is , and so on . How much did you consider the great unwashed follow into this moviewho had n’t seen The Shining ?
Flanagan : Oh , yeah . Well , that was a whole other kind of viewer to always keep in mind . As much as we ’d fence about Kubrick and King and everything , there were citizenry total in who would have no reference work to either . I imply , [ people ] might watch this motion picture and scratch their heads and say , “ I think they ripped offReady Player One . ” I feel like those viewers be and the gift that I had from Stephen King in that was the character of Abra , who also be intimate nothing about the Overlook or the Torrances or the “ shining ” itself . She is that new viewer without any form of reference . And so her story and being able-bodied to use her eyes was a direction to come into this tarradiddle , that pass on us a path in for masses that did n’t needfully know The Shining . And I conceive Abra the character , and certainly Kyliegh Curran ’s carrying out of Abra — I think Kyliegh is just a remarkable forcefulness of nature in this picture — I cerebrate that ’s how we were able to kind of at least keep one room access open for the masses who might not have this story with this material .
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io9 : You hearten so many element of The Shining , which I imagine was another nightmare . Was there anything that ended up being prosperous than you wait it to be ?
Flanagan : Nothing was easier . No , everything was really hard . And every metre you thought , even if we had it 80 per centum correct , we would have these affright where we finally realized we were looking at a screen grab that had the unseasonable color timing and that our carpet was a petty too white-livered and orange enough . And we ’d have to quickly make modification . secondly - guesswork and triple guessing everything we did was really tough . There were thing like , “ Oh , they do n’t make this light fixture any longer ” or “ The sink in the green bath in elbow room 237 , those swallow hole are n’t made the same agency anymore . These are stuffy enough , right ? ” And I would say , “ There ’s no such thing as secretive enough . We have to get it exactly right . ” Because I would scrutinize those details if anyone else made this movie , so someone ’s going to do it to me .
That was an overwhelming amount of stress , especially sleep with we ’d never get everything veracious no matter how hard we essay . There were thing that were going to descend through the cracks or things that we could n’t get on the button correct . And that clobber drive me half-baked . Daily . It would just drive me Nut .
We bumped into things where we ’re building to Kubrick ’s exact design but the attribute of our stage are different than his . And so we ’d have to make change to the Overlook and any time we had to shift the Overlook , I would panic . I ’d say “ We ca n’t ! We ca n’t change the Overlook ! ” And they ’d say “ There ’s not enough infinite on the level to build up what you want to build . You have to cut it back by three feet . ” Now you think three feet , maybe no one ’s lead to notice that . But if they do , what am I run to say , you know ? And that stuff was really … I had a million reasons not to be able-bodied to go to sleep at nighttime . That ’s only letting up now because there ’s nothing else I can do . It ’s all over . There ’s no other decision I can make . All I can do now is seek to explain myself , which is a very weird position to be in .
io9 : Last thing . I fuck The Haunting at Hill House but I do n’t understand how you made that , made this , and are making the sequel , The Haunting at Bly Manor . Take me through how that ’s even possible ?
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Flanagan : I was actually work on the script for Doctor Sleep while I was at the monitor on set for Haunting . In between setups of the show , I would keep my creative thinker off some of the overwhelming stress of Haunting by spending prison term in the Doctor Sleep hand . Timeline wise , I conceive it was around the time we start shooting episode seven I knew that I was going to be making the movie . And if you expect in the finis of Hill House , actually , you may see Steve ’s married woman Leigh is reading Doctor Sleep . Just kind of a little clue as to what was next . Then I rolled off of that , I give-up the ghost in to mail , finished the edit on Hill House and break like a shot into pre - production with most of the same crew in Atlanta where we shot Haunting . It was most of the same people who just came with me over to Doctor Sleep . We just kept going .
io9 : And how much time do you have between now and Bly Manor ?
Flanagan : Oh , no metre at all . They overlapped . Again , berth - yield on Doctor Sleep was n’t finished when I go to Vancouver to hit Bly Manor . And in reality we ’re about a third of the way through the shoot and I give the set to come on this military press tour . So it ’s all just stacked on top of itself , I ’m afraid .
Doctor Sleep opens Friday .
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BooksHorrorStephen KingThe ShiningWarner Bros.
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