Mike Flanagan and Stephen King cannot quit each other, and the horror world is better for it. For their next trick, however, we will not receive that The Dark Tower TV series (yet). Instead, Flanagan, helmer of The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game adaptations, will deliver a non-horror entry and a mixed-genre, life-affirming story that exists in King’s If It Bleeds novella collection. Let’s dance our way into what to expect from The Life Of Chuck.
Plot
As Constant Readers know, Stephen King is the undisputed “King of Horror,” but several of his more revered tales do not shy away from bending genres. In that spirit, The Life Of Chuck will focus on three separate stories linked to tell the biography of the affecting Charles “Chuck” Krantz while aligning tonally with The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and Stand By Me.
Tom Hiddleston embodies Chuck within the film, which works backward to revisit eras of his life in what Flanagan initially described as “a tenacious little miracle of a movie from the start.” Cast member Matthew Lillard later added to this sentiment while revealing that Flanagan “packs a whole fistful of humanity in a little 5-minute scene and it’s work that I’m really proud of.” He added, “I think the movie is sort of what the world needs in a lot of ways right now.”
How did this project begin? The Midnight Mass showrunner read the If It Bleeds collection and immediately knew this about The Life Of Chuck: “If I could have a crack at this story, it might be the best movie I’ll ever make.” As Flanagan told Collider, he still believes that to be true, “And I felt that way while we were shooting it, too. I felt that way at the end of the first week. The dance was first, which is a confident way to start an independent film … [and] I knew that there was something magical happening. When that little movie ended, we got to make two more that made me feel exactly the same way.”
Did somebody say dancing? Oh yes. Flanagan dreams of having “viewers look at our world today and encourag[ing] them to sometimes put down the briefcase and let yourself dance. Whatever that means to you, whatever kind of expression joy dancing represents – painting, being with family, writing, being athletic, all these different ways that we can let our hearts out.”
Tom Hiddleston, who scored this “ordinary man” role due to a TikTok of him getting down, told Collider, “That’s how I let my heart out.” He likened the experience to running because “It’s just my own body and my own head because we’re so tethered to technology. We’re so attached to information and our phones and our computers and stuff. It’s just my own feet and my own heart and my own imagination just running in space.” And while dancing, the man can certainly move.
Cast
Hiddleston is Charles “Chuck” Krantz. Since Flanagan cannot resist his faves, Mark Hamill and Kate Siegel are also on hand. Who else? Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Jacob Tremblay, Matthew Lillard, Heather Langenkamp, Mia Sara, and It-Goth David Dastmalchian.
Release Date
NEON is releasing The Life Of Chuck into theaters on June 6.
Trailer
Watch it and prepare to weep. Also, another poster awaits below…
