Deeply Disturbing Stephen King Adaptation He Himself Calls “Amazing” is Now on Prime Video
One of my favorite (former) Portland DJs Tara Dublin recently captured the attention of celebrated author Stephen King with one of her helpful tweets. Tara previously worked as an on-air personality at Portland’s 94.7 KNRK. Not to mention, she is also a massive Doctor Sleep fan.
Via a recent post, Tara urged her sizable fanbase to seek out the 3-hour director’s cut of Doctor Sleep, which is back on Prime Video as of the publication of this post. Hooray!
Stephen King saw Tara spreading the good word and quote-tweeted her post, adding “It’s an amazing movie.”
There you have it, Dread Central readers. A happening disc jockey and one of the most prolific authors on earth want you to check out Doctor Sleep. I think you know what you need to do next. You need to head over to Prime Video and check in with the doctor. Doctor Sleep, that is.
Sadly, this Stephen King adaptation failed to meet studio expectations.
In spite of stellar reviews, Stephen King’s seal of approval, and positive fan response, the flick didn’t perform to expectations at the box office. Doctor Sleep earned $75 million globally against a budget of $31 million. That’s by no means a failure, especially when factoring in streaming revenue. However, with It Chapter One pulling in more than $700 million worldwide, the mucky-mucks at Warner Brothers weren’t satisfied. Accordingly, they halted development on any future projects with Flanagan. Big mistake.
I think the studio is largely at fault for the film’s lack of financial success. The sequel may have fared better were it marketed more aggressively as a follow-up to The Shining. It may have benefited from a subtitle conveying as much. IE: Doctor Sleep: A Story from The Shining Universe. I’m no marketing genius. But I do know the value of an existing IP. And it didn’t seem like the campaign took full advantage of that.
The setup for Doctor Sleep is as follows:
Struggling with alcoholism, Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) remains traumatized by the sinister events that occurred at the Overlook Hotel when he was a child. His hope for a peaceful existence soon becomes shattered when he meets Abra (Kyliegh Curran), a teen who shares his extrasensory gift of the “shine.” Together, they form an unlikely alliance to battle the True Knot, a cult whose members try to feed off the shine of innocents to become immortal.
That’s all we have at present. Stay tuned for future updates on which noteworthy films in the genre space are available to stream and where you can find them! Also, make sure to follow @DreadCentral on Twitter (X) so you never miss out on one of our exciting updates.
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