Earlier this year, the exciting announcement was made that Stephen King's 'The Shining' sequel, 'Doctor Sleep', was going to be put to film seven years after the book's release. Now it's been revealed that none other than Ewan McGregor will be heading up the class as the older Danny Torrence. 

Ewan McGregor at the 'Solo' premiereEwan McGregor at the 'Solo' premiere

'Doctor Sleep' is the follow-up to Stephen King's third novel 'The Shining', and follows the life of Danny Torrance; son of Wendy and the late Jack Torrance. He still has powers of telepathy and premonition, but he's naturally emotionally scarred from the events that took place at the Overlook Hotel when he was 5-years-old.

Now Danny is older, he's starting to develop his father's violent temper and alcoholism, the latter of which has massively suppressed his psychic abilities. When he decides to go sober, however, 'the shining' becomes more potent, and he - with the help of his cat - becomes a comforting presence for the dying at Massachusetts hospice, earning him the nicknamed of Doctor Sleep. 

Meanwhile, just like the chef at the Overlook Hotel found him, he finds a young girl with strong abilities like him, and he must protect her from the dark forces that threaten to engulf the pair of them. Ghosts from his past are unrelenting, and a new evil known as The True Knot want to torture and murder people with 'the shining' for a valuable essence known as 'steam'.

The film is being directed by the award-winning Mike Flanagan, who did the previous Stephen King-based thriller 'Gerald's Game' in 2017. He and Academy Award winner Akiva Goldsman (who wrote 2017's 'The Dark Tower', as well as 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'A Beautiful Mind') are both attached to write the screenplay.

Stephen King published the sequel in 2013, 36 years after he released the original novel. It went on to win the Bram Stoker Award; an award which has in the past been presented to 'Misery', 'The Green Mile', 'Bag of Bones', 'Lisey's Story' and 'Duma Key', as well as three novella collections.

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Ewan McGregor's next big screen appearance will be in the Winnie-the-Pooh Disney adventure 'Christopher Robin' in August. He is also currently working on Marc Forster's World War II comedy 'The Cow' and the animated fantasy 'The Land of Sometimes'.

'Doctor Sleep' will be released on January 24th 2020.