I don't think it was the visuals from the film that was his main problem. In fact i think he said the imagery was memorable.
The characters were essentially different characters in the film. King especially hated the film versions Jack and Wendy. In turn the film misses a lot of the themes, motivations and general character of the book. The plot changes made also took away from the overall story King was trying to tell.
That was my point. That King has potentially signed off on an overtly “Kubrick” looking sequel, on the proviso that they insinuate that the version of Kubrick’s film they’re following, is a visually identical, but narratively slightly different version (say, a parallel universe version?)...Hence why the clips from the Overlook in the trailer that look like Kubricks, are actually spot-the-difference reshoots, rather than the real deal...
Because they could’ve obviously used the real ones... since they’ve used the blood elevator, and have the rights to the score (chills, btw)...
I dunno, I’m spitballing here. King is probably the most adapted living author by a country mile, so I doubt he cares that much at this point, since the money is just sluecing into his bank at this point. But the director of this got both his sign off, and the Kubrick estate’s, and did a brilliant job of adapting Gerald’s Game... so I’m assuming he did something to appease all parties.
* also a
new actress has been cast as Wendy Torrence, so that could lend some credence to it?