Stephen King's 'The Shining' Sequel 'Doctor Sleep' Getting Its Own Movie Adaptation

It's been 36 years since Stanley Kubrick's horror masterpiece The Shining, based on the novel by Stephen King, hit theaters -- and the story could be back on screens soon enough: King's 2013 sequel to the Danny Torrance story, Doctor Sleep, is the next novel from the horror master in line for a movie adaptation.

According to The Tracking Board, the Doctor Sleep novel is now on the road to becoming a movie, with Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, I Am Legend) already contracted to write the screenplay. This is the second time in recent months that Goldsman has become involved in adapting the King universe: He also penned the Dark Tower movie, which will star Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey.

So far, there's no director attached to the project, but King will be executive producing the film, which will follow Jack Torrance's son, Daniel, as an adult.

"Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence," reads Doctor Sleep's synopsis. "Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant 'shining' power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes 'Doctor Sleep.'"

via GIPHY

King's original novel, The Shining, went through two major adaptations: Kubrick's 1980 film starring Jack Nicholson and a 1997 three-part miniseries with Steven Weber in the role of Jack Torrance. While the '90s version is the more accurate adaptation, Kubrick's is considered among the best in the genre, and has introduced generations to the story behind the creepy Overlook Hotel.

Still, King has said in the past he wasn't very happy with the way the iconic director put his story into film, and in a Rolling Stone interview last year called it "misogynistic" in its portrayal of Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) and said he didn't "get" the cult status it has achieved over the decades.