Stephen King’s novels are going through something of a revival of late. Today casting news updates one of the new King adaptations with Trainspotting’s Ewan McGregor being cast as the adult Danny Torrance in The Shining sequel, Doctor Sleep.

The plot of the follow-up centres around Torrance, who still traumatised by the events that took place in the Overlook Hotel. He has become just like his murderous father (played by Jack Nicholson in the 1980 original), with lingering rage and a drinking problem that dulls his pain as well as his ‘shining’ powers.

Those powers return when he embraces sobriety and uses his gift to help the dying at a hospice. He establishes a psychic connection with a young girl who shares his extreme abilities, and who is being targeted by a group who make others like them suffer painful deaths in order to absorb their powers.

Also in the news – Julia Roberts teams up with Amazon Studios for Little Bee

When the book was released in 2013, King stated King stated that it is “a return to balls-to-the-wall, keep-the-lights-on horror“.

He also revealed the inspiration behind the story actually came from a cat. “The story was partly inspired by Oscar, a therapy cat who allegedly predicts the deaths of terminally ill patients”. King said, “I thought to myself: ‘I want to write a story about that.’ And then I made the connection with Danny Torrance as an adult, working in a hospice. I thought: ‘That’s it. I’m gonna write this book.’ The cat had to be there. It always takes two things for me to get going. It’s like the cat was the transmission and Danny was the motor.

Mike Flanagan, who directed King’s Gerald’s Game, will again take the helm on the project. Trevor Macy and Jon Berg are producing. The film is likely to land sometime in 2020.

This won’t be the first time McGregor is taking on an adult version of an already established character. This summer, McGregor, will be seen as the adult Christopher Robin in Disney’s project of the same name. In 2019, He will star in Marc Forster’s comedy, The Cow.