Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King Adaptation ‘Life of Chuck’ Lands at Neon

Mike Flanagan‘s adaptation of the Stephen King Novella The Life of Chuck has landed distribution.

Neon will release the movie that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, going on to win the audience award. The anthology film is told in three parts and focuses on the life, internal and external, of Charles Krantz (Tom Hiddleston). Karen Gillan, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Mark Hamill also star.

While Flanagan has adapted other King works, specifically in the horror genre, The Life of Chuck has drawn closer comparisons to Frank Darabont’s Shawshank Redemption.

Talking to THR ahead of TIFF, Flanagan said of speaking with King, “When we were doing The Life of Chuck, we talked a lot before production. He has an enormous amount of approvals on things like casting and other details. But when the movie goes, he stays very far away. He says, ‘The movie’s yours and the book is mine.’”

The THR review of the film reads: “It comes as no surprise that reigning scare-meister Mike Flanagan has a soft spot for Stephen King, having successfully adapted Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep for the big screen. But his latest stab at King, the genre-warping The Life of Chuck, makes for an oddball if less ideal fit.”

Elsewhere on Neon’s slate is Cannes winner Anora and Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence. The company recently released the horror thriller Longlegs, which has grossed over $100 million at the global box office.

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