Jack Nicholson is one of the greatest actors of all time, but unless you're watching him in an older movie, you haven't seen him onscreen since 2010's little-seen How Do You Know. Nicholson retired soon after, but that doesn't mean he has disappeared. With how many famous roles he's had over the decades, from huge films like Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Batman, and The Departed, Nicholson's presence is always around for film fans. If you're a horror buff, it's as Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining that you remember him most from. Stephen King may have had his reasons for not enjoying Nicholson's performance, but it's iconic and often imitated. Thirty-nine years later, Mike Flanagan began work on a followup, Doctor Sleep, based on another King novel, so Warner Bros. asked Nicholson if he'd be interested in being part of it. Sadly, they were unable to get the Hollywood heavyweight to come out of retirement.
Jack Torrance Is One of Horror's Most Infamous Villains
Jack Nicholson was well-established as an A-lister by 1980, so his casting as Jack Torrance in The Shining showed just how revered both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick were in the industry. Nicholson steals every scene he's in as the patriarch of the Torrance family, and the caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, who's been driven to madness and murder by the ghosts inside. Ironically, King couldn't stand Kubrick's adaptation or Nicholson's performance. Kingthought Nicholson was miscast, because he seems crazy from the moment we meet him, but in the novel he's supposed to be a good and sympathetic soul who is transformed by the hotel.
Mike Flanagan Tried To Get Jack Nicholson To Come Out of Retirement
Mike Flanagan might not quite be on the level of Stanley Kubrick just yet, but he is one of our top masters of horror and was the ideal person to adapt Doctor Sleep for the big screen. In 2019, he was just coming off of making another adaptation of a King novel, Gerald's Game, and was establishing himself as an expert in adapting beloved horror literature for the big screen.
Related
Flanagan had the blessing of Stanley Kubrick's family to go forward with Doctor Sleep, and Warner Bros. actually reached out to Jack Nicholson as well. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Flanagan said:
"There were initial things where I had been curious about whether or not he wanted any participation in the film whatsoever, in a cameo, any capacity, but he declined. I think he's serious about his retirement. But he offered his support and wished us the best and was aware of everything we were doing."
'Doctor Sleep' Actually Works Better Without Jack Nicholson
Image via Warner Bros.
For Jack Nicholson to come out of retirement for anything would be fun to see, but as exciting as it would have been for Doctor Sleep, a cameo would not have made any sense. He could have come back for a scene as the ghost of Jack Torrance, but with the actor four decades older, that wouldn't have looked right, and digitally deaging him would have felt just as off. Also, all of the other characters from The Shining had been recast, with Ewan McGregor now playing a grownup Danny Torrance, and Alex Essoe playing Wendy, the part Shelley Duvall made famous, in flashback scenes.
Nicholson could have perhaps played another character in a quick scene that winked at the past, but it's for the best that it didn't happen. The story of his return to acting would have dominated everything else, and Doctor Sleep as a movie would have been lost to how huge it was to have Nicholson in it. Flanagan told Vanity Fair that there were discussions on how to recast Jack Torrance. In the beginning, the idea was to try a stunt casting with someone like Leonardo DiCaprio or Christian Slater, but they would have taken away from the moment as well. Instead, Flanagan was adamant that Henry Thomas, who he had worked with before, should be Jack. Thomas is a great actor, but also not so famous that he would have taken away from the moment when he first appears on the screen. It worked. Thomas was chilling as Jack Torrance, but even he'd admit that there was just no replicating Jack Nicholson.
Doctor Sleep is available to watch on Prime Video in the U.S.
Years following the events of The Shining (1980), a now-adult Dan Torrance must protect a young girl with similar powers from a cult known as The True Knot, who prey on children with powers to remain immortal.
Image by Zanda Rice
Image via Warner Bros.
English (US) ·