Director Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep, Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House) has released an update on the film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Life of Chuck – and since it’s one of the most anticipated films of the year, you may be glad to know, he’s completed post-production!
Adapted from King’s novella published in the 2020 anthology If It Bleeds, the film will tell three separate but intrinsically linked stories which tell the biography of Charles Krantz in reverse, beginning with him dying from a brain tumor at 39, and ending with his childhood in a supposedly haunted house.
This adaptation of The Life of Chuck stars Tom Hiddleston as Chuck, alongside Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange), and Jacob Tremblay (Doctor Sleep), Mia Sara, Matthew Lillard, Trinity Bliss, Harvey Guillen, Rahul Kohli, David Dastmalchian, and Heather Langenkamp.
One of the film’s stars, David Dastmalchian, also has a lot to say about the film:
It’s beautiful. You think, ‘Oh, Mike Flanagan, Stephen King, this thing’s going to just be the most horrifying, terrifying, thing you’ve ever seen.’ [But] it is so beautifully rendered, heartfelt, the drama, the performances,” gushed Late Night with the Devil star Dastmalchian in a new interview with Gizmodo.
The cast in this is deep. [Matthew] Lillard has a moment in this film that just breaks my heart. Karen Gillan, another one who I think rides that incredible ski slope between her small indie art films and then big studio budgeted things. One of the best actors in Hollywood right now. Kate Siegel, I mean there’s so [many] great people! Ah, what a joy.
As a Stephen King fan, a Mike Flanagan fan – and sod it, a Tom Hiddleston fan, as well – I’m really super excited about this release. In fact, I hadn’t actually read The Life of Chuck until I saw the news that Hiddleston was signed on to play the role.
When I read it, I realised he was the best possible person to play Chuck – as if the role had been tailor made for him, actually – but I won’t tell you why, because potential spoilers.
According to the production, this movie draws tonally from other King adaptations including Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.
Karen Gillan, who had previously seen a rough cut of the movie, and mentioned that it had her “crying for days.” The actress said:
You know what, it didn’t feel that different. I was going into it like, ‘OK, how has he changed? He’s done so many movies. [It] felt the same! We were back in Alabama like we’d never left. If there was any difference, I suppose he just felt more… I mean, he was relaxed on the first one, but maybe he wasn’t, he was just pretending to be relaxed. But no, he was just the same Mike Flanagan, and brilliant and the movie is absolutely incredible. I saw a not-finished version of it, and literally didn’t stop crying for days. In a good way.
I can see why. In fact, the story cut me a little deeper due to personal experience with the subject material, and yes, it is heartbreaking.
What do you think of the latest news about The Life of Chuck? Have you read the story? Let me know in the comments!
