New Stephen King Movie's Star Left 'Crying for Days' After Watching It
'The Life of Chuck' will mark Flanagan's third Stephen King adaptation after 'Gerald's Game' and 'Doctor Sleep.'
Mike Flanagan's upcoming Stephen King adaptation The Life of Chuck is poised to be an emotional one. Although the star-studded film currently doesn't have a release date, much to fans' disappointment, star Karen Gillan revealed that she has seen a very early version of the movie, and it left her "crying for days."
"The movie is absolutely incredible . I saw a not-finished version of it, and literally didn't stop crying for days. In a good way," the actress, who previously worked with the famed director on Oculus, told Collider in a recent interview. "It's a cathartic experience. It's someone dealing with the end of their life, and it's told in a very imaginative way, and it's just beautiful. It's a celebration of life, I suppose. I think we could all do with a bit of that."
Unlike most of the other works both King and Flanagan are known for, The Life of Chuck isn't strictly horror and is more of a meditative drama that film lead Tom Hiddleston compared to The Shawshank Redemption. Marking Flanagan's third Stephen King adaptation following Gerald's Game and Doctor Sleep, The Life of Chuck is based on three interconnected stories from King's 2020 novella If It Bleeds. It centers around the life of Charles "Chuck" Krantz in reverse, beginning with his death at age 39 from a brain tumor and ending with his childhood in a house believed to be haunted.
Along with Gillan and Hiddleston, The Life of Chuck also stars Mark Hamill, who first joined Flanagan's horror universe in Netflix's The Fall of the House of Usher, as Albie. The star-studded cast also features Matthew Lillard, Harvey Guillén, Chiwitel Ejifor, Mia Sara, and David Dastmalchian, as well as other Flanagan repeats, including Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, Violet McGraw, Samatha Sloyan, Jacob Tremblay, and Heather Langenkamp.
The Life of Chuck is produced by Flanagan alongside his longtime Intrepid Pictures partner Trevor Macy and QWGmire's Molly C. Quinn, Matthew W. Welty and Elan Gale. The movie was granted a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement, allowing actors to work on the film amid the ongoing strike. At this time, a release window has not been announced for the film, but given that Gillan has viewed a cut of the movie already, it seems a release date is on the horizon.