A new Stephen King adaptation from Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan is set to feature some major Marvel and Star Wars actors. Making his feature film debut with 2011’s independent horror film Absentia, Flanagan is also known as the creator and showrunner on Netflix’s hit series The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. No stranger to adapting King’s work to the screen, the director also helmed 2017’s Gerald’s Game prior to turning his attention to the 2019 sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep.
More recently, Deadline has revealed that Flanagan’s latest King adaptation, The Life Of Chuck, is set to star Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill. According to the original report, the script was already completed prior to the current WGA writers strike, and development on the project has been ongoing for several months. Hiddleston is set to assume the titular role of Charles “Chuck” Krantz, while Hamill will play his character’s grandfather, Albie.
What We Know About The Life Of Chuck
Based on the three-act novella of the same name, The Life of Chuck follows the story of a 39-year-old man whose life story is told in reverse order. Originally featured in King’s 2020 anthology If It Bleeds, the story begins with Chuck dying in a hospital bed from a brain tumor and ends with him as an orphaned child going to live with his grandparents in a supposedly haunted house.
With Flanagan’s forthcoming adaptation being likened to some of King’s more emotive works, such as Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, it would seem that The Life Of Chuck will largely steer clear of King’s penchant for horror elements. Nonetheless, the original story does still feature a great deal of King’s trademark character work and love of the surreal.
This film will mark Flanagan’s second collaboration with Hamill, who is also set to star in his upcoming Netflix series Fall of The House of Usher, based on the classic tale from Edgar Allan Poe. It will, however, be Flanagan’s first time working with Hiddleston. At the moment, there is no indication when audiences can expect to see The Life of Chuck arrive in theaters, though with this star-studded casting announcement, the latest Stephen King adaptation is sure to begin piquing plenty of interest.
Source: Deadline
