‘The Life Of Chuck’ By Mike Flanagan.
Mike Flanagan is a very busy man these days, after ‘Haunting Of The Hill House’ became a huge hit for Netflix, he has made multiple horror series for the streamer, Mike also directed ‘Doctor Sleep’, the semi-sequel to Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’. he has many projects on his hands, but one of the most exciting is ‘The Life Of Chuck’, starring Tom Hiddleston as the lead. It is an adaptation of the Stephen King novella published in the 2020 collection “If It Bleeds”. Flanagan also wrote the script. he will also produce the pic along with Trevor Macy.
According to Stephen King’s website, the plot is described as; “The Life of Chuck is three separate stories linked to tell the biography of Charles Krantz (Hiddleston) in reverse, beginning with his death from a brain tumor at 39 and ending with his childhood in a supposedly haunted house”.
Calling the cast of the film ‘star studded’ is not enough, because in October 2023, Deadline reported that joining Tom Hiddleston, is Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Karen Gillian (Guardians Of The Galaxy), Jacob Tremblay (Good Boys) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange), Flanagan himself announced the full cast days later which includes; Matthew Lillard (Scooby-Doo), Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), David Dastmalchian (2021- The Suicide Squad, Ant-Man), Harvey Guillen (What We Do In The Shadows), and horror scream queen Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street).
We’re still not done, as most of the remaining cast includes regulars of Mike Flanagan’s Netflix series’— Kate Siegel (Haunting of the Hill House), Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli (Midnight Mass) and many more are attached to star.
Filming began in Alabama, during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, under a interim agreement in October. filming wrapped on November 16. It was revealed that Flanagan would also edit the film, as he had done with his previous films. In April 2024, the Newton Brothers, frequent collaborators of Flanagan, were announced to be serving as composers.
Mike Flanagan made a strong first impression on the horror scene with the fan-favorite entries ‘Oculus’ and ‘Hush’. It didn’t take long for Flanagan to start directing works based on the stories of Stephen King (Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep). this doesn’t even account for the smash hit Netflix shows Flanagan has created, such as, ‘The Haunting Of The Hill House’ as previously mentioned, ‘Midnight Mass’ and the most recent ‘The Fall Of The House Of Usher’. success like that is bound to get attention of big stars and studios who want to work with him, for example— Universal and Blumhouse hired Flanagan to direct the next two ‘Exorcist’ films in their rebooted franchise with full creative freedom. they hired him to steady the ship after 2023’s Exorcist: Believer flopped at the box office, Universal bought the rights of the Exorcist franchise for $400 million.
Life Of Chuck is set to world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2024, along with other notable premieres such as- ‘Nightbitch’ starring Amy Adams and Dreamworks’ ‘The Wild Robot’.
This is what the TIFF website said about the film- “The Life Of Chuck starts grand and ends intimate, like a setting sun. It’s a Stand By Me for the multiple lives within each of us, pulled between our dreams and down-to-earth pragmatism. fans of Flanagan’s skillful storytelling will easily see why he gravitated towards the unorthodox structure of this King novella. coupled with his impressive knack for elevating simple conversations and interactions into memorable set pieces, Flanagan manages a rare feet: finding warmth in melancholy.
Eben Bolter is the cinematographer, the film currently has no distributor so there is no release date set yet.
