Mike Flanagan, Stephen King and Tom Hiddleston? You Had Me at Mike
When horror auteur Mike Flanagan links up with Stephen King and casts Tom Hiddleston as an ordinary man facing the extraordinary, you know it’s not going to be your average King adaptation.
The first trailer for The Life of Chuck has just dropped, and it’s equal parts heart-wrenching, head-spinning, and straight-up beautiful.
Based on King’s lesser-known novella, the film tracks the life of Charles Krantz (Hiddleston) in reverse –from death to childhood –unfolding in three surreal, genre-hopping acts.
There’s a countdown to Chuck’s death splashed across billboards. There’s interpretive dance in abandoned school halls. There’s Mark Hamill.
It’s Flanagan at his most unhinged and ambitious, pivoting from the haunted house playbook and diving headfirst into the human soul.
Also starring Karen Gillan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Matthew Lillard, and Jacob Tremblay, the film looks like it’s less about what scares us and more about what it means to be alive –still, there’s enough eerie tension to remind you who’s behind the camera.
Out in cinemas August 21, The Life of Chuck might just be the most surprising Stephen King film yet. And if the trailer’s anything to go by, we’re in for a deeply strange, deeply moving ride.
Watch the trailer above – or here.
