The Life Of Chuck, based on Stephen King’s novel and directed by Mike Flanagan, is confirmed for a 2025 release.
Coming out of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, there was a feeling that Mike Flanagan’s upcoming adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Life Of Chuck could be an awards contender. Not only is this year’s race for Best Picture said to be one of the most open we’ve had for years, but The Life Of Chuck would win TIFF’s coveted People’s Choice Award, historically a strong indicator that a film would go on to earn a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards. Twelve of the last 14 winners have gone on to do so.
The film’s US distributor Neon, however, has instead elected to give the film a May 2025 release slot according to Deadline. Not only does that preclude the film from this year’s awards race, but also suggests that the company doesn’t think the film will play a key role in the race for 2026 gold either.
While there’s certainly more to life than winning awards, it looks as though The Life Of Chuck's May release slot has been somewhat determined by Neon deciding to back Sean Baker’s Anora as its key awards contender this year, with the company not wanting to have to split its awards season resources. This news comes hot on the heels of Ava DuVernay’s criticism of the distributor for its perceived failure to properly promote Origin, her film which failed to make any headway in last year’s awards races.
The Life Of Chuck is Flanagan’s take on three of King’s interconnected short stories. Production began in Alabama in October 2023 with a cast that looks pretty great: Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill lead the ensemble while Chiwitel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan and Jacob Tremblay also feature.
Then there’s – deep breath! – Matthew Lillard, Harvey Guillén, Kate Siegel, Mia Sara, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Q’Orianka Kilcher, Benjamin Pajak, Antonio Raul Corbo, David Dastmalchian, Carl Lumbly, Annalise Basso, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kholi, Matt Biedel, Sauriyan Sapkota, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Michael Trucco, Violet McGraw, Molly C Quinn, Heather Langenkamp and Taylor Gordon, the latter in her debut role.
The film will be told backwards, examining ‘the existence of its subject Charles Krantz in reverse (told you), beginning with his death aged 39 from a brain tumour and ending with his childhood in a house which may or may not be haunted.
Stephen King adaptations have been something of a mixed bag over the last few years, but if that TIFF award is anything to go by, Flanagan might have produced something that sits along such superior King adaptations as The Shawshank Adaptation or The Green Mile.
The filmmaker has plenty of other irons in the fire at the moment, including a new Exorcist film, a potential take on the DC villain, Clayface (which he’s written and is reportedly not directing) and yes, more spins on King’s work including a Carrie TV show and maybe even a new take on The Dark Tower, the author’s dark fantasy opus.
We’ll bring you updates on any of these projects as we hear more.
