We can almost imagine director Mike Flanagan sending a scary set of twins to Ewan McGregor's house to entreat him to "come play with us". But it's more likely just your regular, boring old offer and contract negotiation. Still, however he managed it, McGregor will indeed be playing Danny Torrance in The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep.
Published by Stephen King in 2013, Sleep's story catches up with an adult Danny, seen as a child in Shining, burdened with the trauma of his younger days and showing worrying signs of his father's violent moods. With a lingering rage and a drinking problem that dulls his pain as well as his supernatural shining powers, he finds they return when he opts to go sober and uses his gifts to help those dying at a local hospice.
After forming a psychic connection with a young girl who boasts similar abilities, he discovers a scary group targeting those who have the powers, improving their own by inhaling the "steam" that comes off people with the shine during painful deaths.
Warner Bros. optioned the book back in 2016, and has been slowly developing it since then with Akiva Goldsman writing a script draft. Thanks to the success of It, the studio is pushing Doctor Sleep on to the fast track, hiring Flanagan to re-write and direct. According to Variety, King has given his blessing to McGregor playing the role, so perhaps he'll be happier with this take on the Shining story.
McGregor will be back on our screens in an altogether less terrifying tale (entirely dependent on how you feel about real-world CG versions of the Winnie The Pooh gang) in Christopher Robin, which arrives on 17 August.
Keep up to date with all the latest movie news, click here to subscribe to Empire on Great Magazines and have the latest issue delivered to your door every month.