In news that will either thrill or horrify (in the bad sense) fans of Stephen King, the author has confirmed that he’s begun work on a follow-up to his celebrated 1977 novel THE SHINING, entitled DR. SLEEP.

While King’s keeping much of the plot close to his chest for the time-being, it has been revealing on his official site that it will incorporate “a traveling group of vampires called The Tribe”.

Come again?

Embarrassingly I’m only familiar with Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation (of which I’m fully aware King hated), and I’ve never seen the TV mini-series he himself scripted in 1997, so I’m a little confused as to why vampires are being thrown into the mythology at this stage. Did I miss something?

Maybe this video of King speaking about DR. SLEEP at the George Mason University will shed some light on it…

Ahhh, I see. ‘Psychic’ vampires. Got it. 

If you’re interested in hearing more about ‘The Tribe’ (and you don’t suffer from seasickness – this is pretty damn shaky footage), then here’s King reading from his unfinished manuscript… 

Sounds interesting. But with a back-catalogue of King output still have to catch up on, I’ll probably just wait for the movie, because let’s not fool ourselves – Hollywood will have already optioned the rights for a big-screen adaptation.

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