Doctor Sleep came out last year, and it was one of my most anticipated movies of 2019, but unfortunately, I was left a little bit deflated by the movie.
I’m a huge fan of Stephen King’s book of the same name which is a follow-up to The Shining, but the film didn’t quite recapture the joy, horror and magic of the book for me.
One of the reasons why that might have been is because the book is just so Goddam long. It’s a very thick thing, which is usually the case with King’s work.
A lot happens in it, and they had to cut out and alter a lot of the book’s plot to fit into a movie which isn’t over six hours long.
Whilst watching the movie, I did think that the story might have been more suited to being turned into a TV show, but Mike Flanagan really wanted to make it, and he had a very good stab at it.
Anyway, he was chatting with Collider, and during this conversation, the writer and director revealed that there’s going to be a three-hour-long cut of Doctor Sleep and highlighted that it was a more “literary” cut of the film.
We’re getting an extended cut of Doctor Sleep
Doctor Sleep director, Mike Flanagan and Stephen King are going to work together again (Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures)
Read more: Doctor Sleep’s Director Reveals Stephen King’s Reaction To The Movie
Here’s what Flanagan had to say about his upcoming three-hour-long version of Doctor Sleep:
There is new material throughout the whole film. Some of it is brand new stuff that was never included in the theatrical cut, and there’s also a handful of extended (or altered) scenes as well. There are some big new scenes, for sure… including in the final act at the Overlook.
Some of my favourite stuff involved Young Danny and Wendy (there’s some terrific material with Alex Essoe that I’m thrilled is restored here), and will be familiar to fans of the book. There’s also a fair amount of new stuff involving young Abra in the film’s first act, learning about her shine, and how it affects her parents.
Flanagan went on to reveal that “there was never any intention to release this cut theatrically, we always knew it was too long. But we worked on it alongside the theatrical cut throughout post, and it made it a lot easier to make hard decisions in the edit, knowing that some day this cut might see the light of day.”
Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing this extended cut, but I’m still not convinced that all the movie’s problems will be solved by having it be longer.
I thought that some of the choices made were the wrong ones and the ending was very problematic for me.
How about you guys? Are you looking forward to seeing a longer version of Doctor Sleep? Let us know in the comments below.
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