It’s been 35 years since The Shining first graced bookshelves, but fans will only have to wait one more year for Stephen King’s sequel to be released.  Doctor Sleep, which we announced in a previous article, will now be released on September 24th, 2013.  The novel will center on Dan Torrance, the grown-up protagonist from the original story.  As a wanderer who finally settles down in a New Hampshire town, he works at a nursing home and uses his “shining” to help the residents pass painlessly into eternal sleep.  He also must defend himself and Abra Stone, a tween girl gifted with the shining, from a roving band of supernaturals who feed off their power.  Much like The Shining was adapted into the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film, we can certainly expect to see some feature adaptation news of Doctor Sleep in the coming months.  Hit the jump for more on King’s sequel.

Warner Bros. is reportedly “quietly exploring the possibility” of a prequel to The Shining.  A WB spokeswoman told the LA Times that the project is at a very early stage and not even formally in development.  But now that the report is published, it will be difficult for the studio to explore the idea quietly, and it is hard to believe that you all will react positively to the news.  At first glance, it sounds like a terrible idea.  The Shining is about a relatively normal writer who takes his family to an isolated hotel and slowly descends into madness.  The prequel will be set before this character journey begins, and so will tell the story of… what, exactly?  To be fair, the presence of a psychic son should offer some plot possibilities.  [Edit: A commenter brings up a possibility that I stupidly overlooked: the movie follows other characters during their stay at the Overlook Hotel rather than the Torrance family.  That is indeed a more viable premise.]

The bright spot is the team in charge of development: writer/producers Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island) and James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) with their producing partner Bradley Fischer (Black Swan).  There are solid psychological horror credits in those parentheses, so if there is a story to be told, they’ll find it.  More after the jump.