Watch Doctor Sleep Director Meet Author Stephen King in New Featurette

Mike Flanagan, the horror director best known for helming Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, is currently promoting his upcoming film, Doctor Sleep, which is set to hit theaters everywhere next week. The movie is based on Stephen King‘s follow-up novel to The Shining and will serve as an adaptation of the book as well as an “authentic sequel” to Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film. The movie stars Ewan McGregor as the grown-up version of The Shining‘s child protagonist, Danny Torrance. This is Flanagan’s second time adapting King’s work (the director also helmed Gerald’s Game in 2017), but a new featurette shows the two horror enthusiasts meeting for the first time.

“This is a really special day for me,” Flanagan shares. “Even though I’ve made two Stephen King movies, I’ve never actually met Stephen in person. He is my hero. He has been my hero since I was a kid.”

“I always wondered what happened to Danny when he grew up,” King shared. “By taking Dan Torrence’s story as a grown-up, and filtering it through his own large heart, Mike has been able to take the Kubrick movie a step further.” He added, “Mike’s movie stands on its own, and it has its own excitement and its own rewards that it brings with it.”

“This is a movie you should see,” King proclaimed. “I’m proud to be a part of it.”

In addition to Ewan McGregor, Doctor Sleep also stars Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible 5 & 6) as a predatory cult leader; Kyliegh Curran as girl with a power “shining”; Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek) as the girl’s doctor; Zahn McClarnon (Westworld) as the cult leader’s henchman; and Alex Essoe as Danny’s mother, Wendy Torrance.

It’s not too surprising that this is the first time King met Falangan as the author isn’t always involved in the adaptations of his work. It was recently revealed that King took more of an active interest in IT CHAPTER TWO than he normally does in these situations. In fact, he even went as far as to request the inclusion of specific scenes. While King was certainly in a position to make demands for the film, director Andy Muschietti noted that the author was quite mild-mannered with his requests.

“He gave us a little list of things that he would like to see in the movie,” Muschietti shared with io9. “But he is very gentle. He said like, ‘Please take this. It is what it is. There are no strings attached.’ It was more an affectionate thing with what he remembers of his own work.”

Check out Doctor Sleep when it lands in theaters on November 8th. IT CHAPTER TWO will be released on digital on November 19th, followed by a release on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K on December 10th.