Director Mike Flanagan confirmed that Warner Bros. put his Doctor Sleep follow-up to bed due to the film's sleepy box office performance.
Flanagan shared a concept poster for the canceled project on Twitter with the caption, "We were SO CLOSE. I’ll always regret this didn’t happen." When a fan asked why the film was terminated, Flanagan said, "Because of Doctor Sleep’s box office performance, Warner Bros opted not to proceed with it. They control the rights, so that was that." Contrary to the poster, the canceled film was called Hallorann, which would have focused on Dick Hallorann, a fellow "Shine" user and mentor to Danny Torrance.
Played by Scatman Crothers in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Hallorann dies at the hands of Jack Torrance during an attempt to save Danny and Wendy from the evil forces of the Overlook Hotel. Carl Lumbly played the character in Doctor Sleep, appearing as a ghost to assist a now-adult Danny Torrance with his fight against the True Knot, a cult that feeds off children with powers to remain immortal.
Released in 2019, Doctor Sleep follows a grown-up Danny Torrance as he attempts to protect a young Shine user from the True Knot. The film starred Ewan McGregor as Danny, Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat, the True Knot's leader, and Kyliegh Curran as Abra Stone, the young Shine user Danny seeks to protect. Despite its disappointing box office performance -- earning just $72.3 million worldwide against a $45–55 million budget -- Doctor Sleep was well-received, scoring a 78% and 89% with critics and audiences, respectively.
Among those who praised Doctor Sleep was Stephen King himself, who called the film "terrific" and encouraged audiences to see it upon its release. King, who was notoriously displeased with Kubrick's version of The Shining, continued to praise Flanagan's sequel in the wake of its poor financial returns. "Box office numbers aside, Mike Flanagan’s film is excellent," the author wrote on Twitter. "If people choose not to go, that is their choice, but when something is good, I cheer for it."
In August 2021, Warner Bros. also canceled an HBO Max series based on the Overlook Hotel from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions. Written by Dustin Thomason and Scott Brown and unrelated to Flanagan's work, Overlook was inspired by the characters and setting of Stephen King's original novel in the vein of Castle Rock. Netflix was considered a frontrunner to collect the show, but the streamer ultimately passed on the project.
Doctor Sleep is available to stream on HBO Max, including a three-hour director's cut released in 2020.
Source: Twitter