The latest Stephen King adaptation, The Life of Chuck starring Tom Hiddleston, cleaned up at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, directed by horror icon Mike Flanagan, came home with the People’s Choice Award at TIFF, a win that came as a surprise to many. Bringing home this award could be a good sign of things to come for Flanagan and his crew. American Fiction was the winner in 2023 with The Holdovers named the runner-up – two movies that ended up becoming Best Picture nominees.
King adaptations have been very hit or miss over the years. On one side of the coin, we have adaptations like IT, directed by Andy Muschetti, that grossed over $700 million at the box office. On the other side of the coin, we see movies like Salem’s Lot struggling to land a proper release. The latter is finally set for a Max release in October. The Life of Chuck is Flanagan’s first film since 2019’s Doctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining, both of which are also Stephen King adaptations.
Hiddleston is joined by a star-studded cast in The Life of Chuck that includes Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, and his frequent collaborator (and wife) Kate Siegel. At the time of this writing, the film has an 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes, Flanagan’s highest film score since 2017’s Gerald Game, yet another King adaptation. This is also an increase from what the score it initially debuted with. Following all that positive word of mouth and the TIFF win, you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. And with King penning the original story on which it’s based, you might expect The Life of Chuck to be a horror film, but that’s not quite the case.
What Is The Life of Chuck About?
The Life of Chuck is a novella published by King in 2020 as part of a larger collection of previously unpublished novellas called If It Bleeds. The collection includes Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, the titular If It Bleeds, Rat, and The Life of Chuck. Of those four, If It Bleeds is the only one without plans to be adapted. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone was released on Netflix in 2022, and Rat has been optioned by Ben Stiller.
Instead of being a horror story, The Life of Chuck follows the life of a man named Chuck, as the name would suggest. The novella is told out of order, so it can be tough to follow. It hasn’t been revealed whether the film follows a similar structure, but Flanagan’s films and shows are known to have twists and turns along with intertwining storylines, so it wouldn’t be surprising if that were the case.
The original story was well received by critics, so it makes sense for it to be given a film adaptation, especially when King adaptations are so prolific. As of right now, there’s no official release date for the film version of The Life of Chuck, but with the premiere happening at TIFF, audiences can likely look forward to seeing it on the big screen at some point in 2025.