Mike Flanagan’s Critically-Acclaimed New Stephen King Adaptation Sets Its Release From ‘Longlegs’ Studio
Stephen King and Mike Flanagan work exceptionally well together. The author’s bibliography is notoriously difficult to adapt, leading to several maligned screen adaptations of King’s work. However, Flanagan possesses a keen understanding of how to translate the essence of King’s writing without packing the proceedings too densely or leaving essential components out.
Flanagan previously adapted Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. Both films won over critics and King enthusiastically endorsed each of those pictures. In their third (but surely not their last) collaboration, the Oculus director is bringing King’s The Life of Chuck to the screen. The film enjoyed a world premiere screening at TIFF and won the prestigious audience award. Said award has been a precursor to an Oscar nomination for many films that played the fest previously. So, here’s hoping that trend will continue.
Mike Flanagan’s latest has secured distribution!
Variety reports that Neon has acquired The Life of Chuck for theatrical release. The outlet forecasts a late 2025 theatrical debut, but there has been no official word from Neon regarding a specific date just yet. Neon recently released Longlegs, a film that has since earned more than $100 million at the box office—no small feat for a boutique distributor.
The picture is being described as genre-bending and apparently leans less toward horror than many King stories. Many critics have drawn comparisons to Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption.
Our own Josh Korngut had the following to say in his review: “Perhaps easiest described as Our Town by way of string theory, Mike Flanagan continues to showcase why he is uniquely capable of staging Stephen King at his most unadaptable with this heartbreaking rendition of The Life of Chuck.”
The film stars Tom Hiddleston as the titular character. Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Jacob Tremblay also star.
The setup for Life of Chuck goes like this:
A life-affirming, genre-bending story based on Stephen King’s novella about three chapters in the life of an ordinary man named Charles Krantz.
The film plays out in reverse chronological order and is split into three separate timelines, functioning a little like an anthology picture. However, rather than telling unrelated stories, the core character (Chuck) is the same in all three segments.
That’s all we have for you at present. Stay tuned to Dread Central for more updates on what’s coming to the big screen in the near future. Also, make sure to follow @DreadCentral on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter (now inexplicably known as X) so you never miss an important update.
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