Mike Flanagan has one of the most impressive resumes of any horror filmmaker working today. Not even including beloved TV shows like The Haunting Of Hill House, The Haunting Of Bly Manor, and Midnight Mass, the director/writer/editor is also the brain behind films like Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game, and the upcoming Exorcist remake (which will be “the scariest movie [he’s] ever made” if he gets it right). But all of that great work apparently pales in comparison to The Life Of Chuck, which he said was his “favorite [feature film that he’s worked on] by a lot” at a New York Comic Con panel today.
Flanked by his repertory players Kate Siegel, Carla Gugino, and Rahul Kohli—a.k.a. the “Flavengers” (they’re reaction to the term “flanaverse” apparently “wasn’t awesome”)—Flanagan got candid about his upcoming Stephen King adaptation. “Not a lot of people are familiar with the short story,” he said about the source material, which was published as part of the author’s 2020 collection, If It Bleeds. But, Flanagan continued, “it’s one of my favorite things he’s ever written. I finished the story with tears streaming down my face, and I wanted this movie to exist in the world for my kids.”
That’s a big statement, considering the fact that Flanagan—who is also currently working to adapt the author’s epic Dark Tower series—knows his King. At this point, he also knows King in the flesh. At the panel, the director shared that The Life Of Chuck‘s Toronto International Film Festival premiere was the first premiere for an adaptation of one of his books that King had attended since The Green Mile in 1999. “There’s a wall that he’s very comfortable on the other side of,” Flanagan shared, “He says all the time that the book is mine, and the movie is yours.” When asked about that separation, the author apparently said, “I can’t lose. If the movie is great, that’s because it was based on a great book, but if the movie sucks, it’s because the book was better.”
Clearly, The Life Of Chuck fits into that first category. “It’s the softest, gooiest side of Stephen King, and of me too,” Flanagan shared. But while it may be a bit of a departure from the auteur’s past work, some things never change. “You will weep,” Gugino promised.
The Life Of Chuck stars Tom Hiddleston as Chuck Krantz, whose life is told in reverse throughout the movie. The TIFF audience award-winning film will be released by Neon sometime in summer 2025.
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