by Gill Pringle in LA
When you see Stephen King’s name on a film poster, you know that you’re in for a scary ride, right? Well, filmmaker Mike Flanagan – in adapting King’s novella, The Life of Chuck, for the big screen – asks audiences to instead recall King’s feel-good films like The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me.
“There’s a tone that Steve achieves in a lot of his non horror work, and I’m thinking about The Body which became Stand By Me, or Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption which would become The Shawshank Redemption,” says the filmmaker.
“Also, to an extent, The Green Mile, although that’s a little more supernatural. I’m talking about when he’s being earnest, he isn’t being maudlin, he’s not overdoing that. So, when he’s being apocalyptic in this story, he’s being gentle at the same time. And I think that he creates the poles to make sure you’re staying between them when it comes to tone,” argues Flanagan, whose genre-bending interpretation of The Life of Chuck – starring Tom Hiddleston as Chuck – is likewise, both apocalyptic and gentle.
“Stephen very famously says that there’s no horror in the world without love. His stories, even the scary ones, aren’t about the monsters. They’re about the people. It isn’t about the clown. It’s about the kids. It’s about the friendship. It’s about the love. So, I think as long as you keep that in mind, it’s very easy to kind of zero in on its tone,” says Flanagan, whose film is an extraordinary story about an ordinary man.
Picture a story unfolding backwards.
We start at the end – a world unraveling, darkening, and yet celebrating a man named Chuck – even though no one seems to know who he is. That’s the film’s opener: a mysterious, post-apocalyptic vibe where Charles “Chuck” Krantz’s face pops up on billboards, TV ads, and windows bearing the message, ‘Thank you, Chuck, for 39 great years.’
But why? That is the question.
Actually, it’s just one of the many questions asked by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillan’s characters, in portraying a couple reconnecting amidst global chaos in the film’s opening scenes.
Set over three acts, as audience members, we celebrate Chuck’s life as he experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us.
Then we move backward to meet adult Chuck – an ordinary accountant with a secret love for dancing, which we witness during an epic six minute dance routine – whose life carries a deeper emotional weight.
And finally, we rewind further into his childhood, where his relationship with his math-obsessed grandfather (Mark Hamill) and dance-loving grandmother (Mia Sara) shapes who he becomes.
Essentially, it’s a film about the ripple effects of small choices – and how the ordinary can feel cosmic.
Certainly, translating the book for the big screen was not without its challenges. “I’m such a King fanatic, my mission is always to preserve as much as possible. But in translating a story like this to the screen, you’re going to have to make changes,” says Flanagan who previously adapted King’s Doctor Sleep.
“It’s all about what fits into the heart of the story. And this one, more than anything, the story just barely fits into a feature length format, so we were able to supplement it with other things, like the Carl Sagan references that aren’t in the story, that are really important to me.
“I’m always watching it from the point of view of the Stephen King fan that I am – to figure out how mad at me I would be if I was just seeing the movie in the theatre, having nothing to do with it. So that’s the big thing,” Flanagan says.
The film’s grander themes struck Hiddleston profoundly. “I think what was crystallised for me when I read the script for the first time was that feeling that we all share, or it’s a knowledge none of us have, which is: none of us know what the last day of our lives will be. None of us know the last date. None of us know how it’s going to end.
“And we all live, each of us, every day, in that uncertainty, and we do the best we can with the life we have. That awareness, I think, is something that comes in and out of focus in our lives, that actually, this is not a dress rehearsal,” says the Loki star.
For Star Wars icon Mark Hamill, it was an opportunity to delve into a familiar character – a man who wants his grandson to follow him into a sensible dependable career.
“It was relatable because I remember telling my parents what I wanted to do. They said: ‘You’re out of your mind! What are the odds? We don’t know anybody in show business. We don’t know anybody who knows anybody in show business. Get your teacher’s degree instead!’” Hamill recalls.
“My father was in the Navy, so my last two years of high school was in Japan but, before that, we had been living in Virginia, and I begged my father to take me to New York where I could see theatre by myself. He wasn’t interested, but with Navy prices you could get in.
“I saw half a dozen shows, and it made it more real to me, because they were real people. I’d find out where the stage door was and I wouldn’t approach the actors or ask for autographs or anything, but I just wanted to see them in real life, in their street clothes. I was that intense about it, but it made it very much real to me in the sense that films and television weren’t. So, I always had this in my mind from the early stages. I mean, it goes way, way, way, way back from seeing B&W King Kong on TV and saying: ‘I want to go to work where people make dinosaurs come to life.’
“I was one of seven – so I wouldn’t dare admit that this was my goal, for fear of ridicule, but I always knew that that’s what I wanted to do, and I feel so grateful that I’ve been able to do that and make a living,” he says.
“My advice to Chuck in the film is common advice, because the odds are against you. This role tickled me because he’s a very common man. He probably drinks a little too much, but the thing that turns him on is the glory of mathematics. He just is rhapsodic about the joys of math,” says Hamill, 73, who is a lifelong Stephen King fan as well.
“I’m reading probably my favourite Stephen King book right now. It’s Stephen King on Writing. Oh my gosh, I wish I’d got a hold of that before, but at least I’ve got it now. So yeah, all I had to do on this film was love my family, and that was very easy to do because I loved all the people that I worked with.”
For Flanagan, he’s just delighted that he was able to adapt and direct King’s novella, immediately struck by it after receiving an advance copy in the spring of 2020. “It knocked me over,” he says. “It was one of my favourite things I’d read in many years, and I’m a ride-or-die King fan. This one hit me in the heart, and I wanted to make it immediately.”
The Life of Chuck is in cinemas 14 August 2025
