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OG Danny Torrance actor reacts to first Doctor Sleep trailer: 'I was surprised'
Come talk about trailers with us, Danny—forever and ever and ever ...
Earlier this week, Warner Bros. unveiled the first trailer for Doctor Sleep, Stephen King's follow-up to The Shining, which follows a grown-up Danny Torrance. In this project, the character, still reeling from his dark childhood spent at the Overlook Hotel, will be played by Ewan McGregor. However, Danny Lloyd, who played the kid version of Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of The Shining in 1980, is now weighing in on that terrifying first teaser.
"I was surprised," Lloyd, who rarely gives interviews after retiring from the entertainment business years ago, told THR. "It looked really good. I was curious, since there is a fine line they have to walk with Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick. It looks like they found a way to pay tribute to both."
While previewing the initial footage to several news outlets (including SYFY WIRE) in Los Angeles, writer/director Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House) and producer Trevor Macy (Oculus) revealed that the production sought approval from both King and the Kubrick estate before moving forward. As for Lloyd, he's read Doctor Sleep and approves of McGregor's casting.
"I am sure he has done a great job with it," he said of the Star Wars actor. "I'd like to see [the movie] right when it comes out."
Now a professor of biology at a community college in Kentucky, Lloyd also reflected on his time spent on The Shining set, which was no place for a young boy of 5.
"[Kubrick] wanted me to act scared, but he didn't want me to be scared of anything," he continued, speaking about how he didn't even see the finished movie until he was a teenager. "There were days when I wasn't allowed on set because of something they were shooting."
If you think about it, Kubrick was very much in the right to bar his young cast member from the set on certain days. The horror project, which involves decrepit old ladies crawling out of bathtubs, a sexual innuendo involving a bear costume, and an ax-wielding Jack Nicholson, could really scar a kid for life.
Co-starring Rebecca Ferguson and Bruce Greenwood, Doctor Sleep awakens in theaters everywhere Friday, Nov. 8.
