Mike Flanagan’s upcoming take on the Stephen King novel The Life Of Chuck has a new trailer – and an August UK release date.
Off the back of last 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 something really rather good. The film won TIFF’s coveted People’s Choice Award, leading to buzz that the film would go on to earn a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards, given that 12 of the last 14 winners have gone on to do so.
That ultimately wouldn’t happen because the film’s US distributor Neon – presumably busy running a campaign to get Sean Baker’s Anora a Best Picture Oscar – elected to give the film a May 2025 release slot. While that date doesn’t suggest that Neon thinks The Life Of Chuck will be a major player at the 2026 Oscars either, we’re still excited to see what all of the fuss is about. And now we have a trailer to further whet our appetite ahead of the film’s release in the US next month.
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.
There’s a pretty deep supporting cast in place for this one too, with 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, 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.
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 is 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.
Whilst The Life Of Chuck may not ultimately win any Academy Awards, neither did Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption, the 1994 Stephen King adaption that has sat atop the IMDb top films list for many years now. In short, there’s more to life than gold trophies. Case in point: for the film, Hiddleston has reportedly had to learn jazz, swing, salsa, cha-cha, the Charleston, bossa nova, polka, quickstep, samba and moonwalking, all for one crazy dance number. Who needs awards when your film has that?
Here’s the trailer for the film below. We don’t get the movie in the UK until the end of August, though.
