‘It almost killed me': Horror maestro Mike Flanagan looks back at career-making hits from ‘Gerald's Game' to ‘Hill House' to ‘Life of Chuck'

The Life of Chuck is easily Mike Flanagan's least scary offering, which is interesting to note considering the new adaptation of Stephen King's novella is set around the pending apocalypse. What it is, however, is Flanagan's coziest and most gentle offering, which helps explain why the drama won the highly coveted People's Choice award at last fall's Toronto International Film Festival – and could ride a wave of strong reviews into this fall's Oscar race.
Prior to Chuck, of course, Flanagan has worked exclusively in the stuff of nightmares, becoming one of the horror's world's most revered writer-directors thanks to genre favorites on screens big (Oculus, Hush, Doctor Sleep) and small (Gerald's Game, The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass).
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In our latest edition of The Gold Standard, Flanagan looks back at 20-plus years of filmmaking, from his humble beginnings on the shoestring-budgeted debut Absentia to a horrific experience making Haunting of Hill House to his award-wining latest offering Chuck, whose cast includes Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, and Mark Hamill . He even picks his favorites.
Flanagan used crowdfunding to finance his $70,000 debut, a supernatural scarer about a pregnant woman (Courtney Bell) whose husband mysteriously reappears after a seven-year absence that was immediately embraced by horror sites like Fangoria.
So when I made when I made that one, I was working full time as a reality TV editor, and I was working a day and a night job to try to stay afloat in L.A. I'd lived in L.A. for eight years at that point, and had given myself five years to try to make something happen and get some traction, and it hadn't worked out. We used Kickstarter, which was still in its beta testing phase, it was brand new. And we shot it with available light on a Canon 5D Mark II in my apartment with a crew of eight people over two weeks. I remember feeling at the time, like one way or another that was either going to be my last movie, or it would kick something open. … It radically changed my life.
I don't think Absentia would have done anything like what it did without Fangoria. Fango ran a feature piece on it, and instantly drove the audience to it. I was incredibly lucky in that I found the horror community to be so welcoming and enthusiastic about not only Absentia, but it was the same with the Oculus short (2006) before that. That was kind of championed only by Bloody Disgusting and Dread Central and Fango, and that really made all of the difference. I don't think Oculus would have been able to go forward if not for the way the horror press and the horror blogs held up Absentia and kind of demanded attention on it. … There are few fandoms as connected and passionate as the horror fandom, and they'll carry you all the way home if you let them.
Flanagan was given a much more robust $4 million budget for his sophomore feature Oculus, starring Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites as adult siblings convinced that an antique mirror was responsible for the deaths that destroyed their childhoods. After premiering at TIFF, the Blumhouse and WWE-produced feature grossed $44 million. Flanagan also met his future wife Kate Siegel on the project.
I was terrified going into Oculus. I was excited. I still think of it as my first real movie. I didn't know what I didn't know. I was suffering from constant imposter syndrome, and this feeling like any second now, they'd look around and figure out I had no idea what I was doing, and I was making it up as I went — which I still feel to this day, frankly. But I remember it being a time of enormous anxiety, but also it was so thrilling. It was so exciting to be on a real set with a real crew and with the equipment. And I'm a huge fanboy, so Karen Gillan was right here and Katee Sackhoff was right there, and I'm a major Whovian and Battlestar fan. And so I was geeking out every day to be working with them. There was one ghost in particular, who really, really changed my life. I remember, at the wrap party, sitting down and talking to Kate kind of for the first time outside of that type of work. And talk about life-changing.
But yeah, Oculus for me was an incredible school. It was one of the most educational experiences of my life. And it kind of broke open this whole other level for me because it was released theatrically, which today I don't think it would have been. And Stephen King watched it and tweeted about it, and I about died. I mean, just completely, completely floored [by] that whole experience and going around doing the doing the press tour and going to the premieres overseas and seeing it with an audience, it was insane. There was a screening of it that WWE did where Hulk Hogan riled up the crowd and introduced the movie. It was bizarre. ... I still felt, though, that as quickly as that had happened, it could go away. And I better have another movie ready, another movie ready, another movie ready. Every one of those movies for that five -year period felt like this could be the last one.
Flanagan sure had some more movies ready. The filmmaker premiered THREE different movies in 2016: Blumhouse's Hush (about a mute woman terrorized in the woods), Before I Wake (starring Jacob Tremblay as a kid with some very problematic nightmares), and Ouija: Origin of Evil (the prequel to 2014's Ouija).
It's a little misleading because we shot Before I Wake before Oculus was released and because [its original distributor] Relativity went under, it was stuck in limbo for years. So really it was only Hush and Ouija that were back to back. And Before I Wake was released with them. But it would have been impossible to do all three in that time frame. But yeah, fortunately for me now, and unfortunately at the time, Relativity Media was going bankrupt and we had no idea, and so the movie didn't come out. But I had to be in prep on something new when I was in post on something, it was a compulsion and it was out of fear that whatever I just worked on was going to fail. And if I wasn't already working on a new thing, that would mean my career would just stop. And so I had to overlap them and keep it moving. And that was a panicked feeling I had that didn't let up for years. Like I was still feeling that way rolling into Doctor Sleep, like where it's like, 'Better keep going, better keep going.' Because if I stop and look down, I'm going to fall out of this career and it'll be over. And it took me a lot of years to finally look behind me and go, 'Oh no, I'm okay. I can go on vacation for a week and it's all right.' But it took a long time.
This buzzed-about Netflix thriller starring Carla Gugino as a woman whose husband dies while she's handcuffed to a bed in a remote cabin marked Flanagan's first collaboration with legendary scribe Stephen King, whose 1992 novel the film was based on.
He had tweeted about Oculus and that blew my mind. And then he tweeted about Hush. And at that point it was like, 'Can we do this?' And Gerald's Game was such a crazy project because no one had made it, and the book had been out for so long. I think the expectation on Steve's part was that no one was ever going to make it. And so between Oculus and Hush, that's what made him say, 'Yep, you can you can have it.' But back then, there was no communication with Steve at all. It was all [through] his agent, he gave me the rights. I sent the script out for approval. I heard that Steve had approved it, but I didn't actually communicate with Steve until after the movie was done. And when he saw the finished film, he sent me an email of his reaction to the movie. And I still have it framed in my office. But that was the first time we actually communicated. That movie also changed a lot of things for me because it didn't just start my relationship with Steve, but it also really propelled me [because] it was a Netflix original, and it really embedded me at Netflix in a very meaningful way.
Now tight with Netflix, Flanagan teamed with Amblin Entertainment and Paramount Television to land his first series on the streaming giant — an incredibly well-received fright fest about adult siblings reckoning with the haunted house of their childhood. It took a massive toll on the writer-director, however.
It's another case of I didn't know what I didn't know. I really wanted to get into television because I thought that was where some of the boldest storytelling was happening, and that you had time to really dig into character, which is my favorite part of what I do. Netflix was at a period of time in its evolution where they were really kind of defying the norms of the television industry and taking chances that other studios weren't, including taking a horror filmmaker who had never been involved with a TV show at all, and letting him be the showrunner and direct all 10 episodes of a show. That's crazy. And again, I don't think it would happen today. But Netflix was really cavalier back then about that. And so was I, because I didn't know what I didn't know. I had that same kind of defensive feeling where if this is my first foray into television, I have to empty the missile silos at it. I had to direct every episode because succeed or fail, I wanted it to be on my terms. It was as much about fear of it not going exactly as I wanted it to go as it was about anything else. And I learned an awful lot about television, about longform storytelling in a real crash course.
And it almost killed me. I lost 45 pounds during production. Over 100 days of straight production. No breaks. Weekends were spent in prep… I think I went five months without a single day off at one point. I really overdid it. But that's what it took to direct 10 episodes all block shot like a feature. I almost didn't survive it. And, yeah, it turned out to again be a project that radically changed my life and leveled me up in a serious way. But it came at an enormous cost with that one… It remains to this day the hardest and most brutal production experience I've ever had. And I didn't enjoy it. I [came] out of Hill House bleeding and never wanting to go back.
Flanagan did quickly return to television, however — multiple times. But he learned how to pace his himself and refine his approach on the Hill House follow-up Bly Manor, Midnight Mass (his Salem's Lot-esque thriller), Midnight Club (following eight haunted terminally ill young adults) and the Edgar Allen Poe-inspired Usher.
I got smarter about not trying to do it all. I only directed one episode of Bly Manor, and I was there for all of it. But I got much better at delegation, and I got much, much better at enlisting other filmmakers and giving them ownership over it as well. By the time Midnight Mass came around, I had kind of forgotten [the trouble of Hill House]. It's like childbirth. You forget. You forget the pain. And so by then I was like, 'I want to do all the episodes again. But it was only seven episodes, so that one didn't almost kill me. That was a wonderful experience. It was really hard, but I think that was the right amount. And then I would kind of modulate it. You know, I did two episodes of Midnight Club, I did four episodes of Usher. I got better at figuring out what a human workload was for me. And I got a lot better at embracing the collaborative nature of television and surrounding myself with people I trusted to shoulder a lot of that weight. And now I'm about to do my sixth series [King's Carrie], and I'm completely relaxed about it. I feel like I've I figured that out. But Hill House was a trial by fire. And I wasn't qualified. Today I would have been like, 'You want to be a showrunner, spend some time in a writers room first.' You want to direct all ten episodes of a series, you need to understand what that really means. You should maybe do half of that. And so I've learned a lot, but I kind of ran face first into that one. I wouldn't have the fortitude today to do it. I was also young enough that I was able to kind of hang on by my fingernails in a way I don't think I would be able to do today.
Flanagan has called Doctor Sleep one of the other most daunting experiences of his career because of how seriously he took the responsibility of bridging the gap between King's book The Shining and Stanley Kubrick's classic 1980 adaptation, which the author famously hated.
So with Doctor Sleep, I met Steve for the first time when I showed him the movie. We brought the finished movie to Bangor [Maine] and screened it for him before anyone else saw it. And I sat with him in an empty theater and watched Doctor Sleep. ... And I was terrified of his reaction, because I know how he feels about The Shining, but he loved the movie. And then after that, I'd say we became friends, we became friendly, and then we were in more regular contact. And I've seen him in person a bunch since then. And he came to the Chuck premiere, which is really neat. But after that we started texting back and forth and just kind of being in touch.
READ:
The Flanagan-King pipeline continued with Chuck, which follows a terminally ill man (Hiddleston) in reverse-chronological three acts as he has deeply profound impacts on certain strangers that he meets.
The thing about The Life of Chuck that was so exciting for me, I read the novella back in April 2020. So right after the shutdown, I felt like the world was ending outside the window back then. And when I started reading it, I didn't think I could keep reading it. It hit so close to home. But I'm so glad I did, because by the end of the story, I was crying with joy and optimism and this incredibly surprising, gentle kind of reassurance that the story provided and I was looking back at my life in a whole different way. I shut the book and turned to Kate, and I said, 'If I get to make this, it's probably the best movie I'll ever get to make.' And I emailed Steve and kind of begged for the story. He had just given me the rights to The Dark Tower so he said, 'Not right now.' He likes to only have one thing at a time, so it doesn't slow anything down. And The Dark Tower proved to take a lot longer to get on its feet than we imagined. It's still happening, but it's taking its time. It's a juggernaut. And so there was time to do Chuck and I got to ask again a few years later. And he said, 'Are you sure? That's a strange one.' And I was like, 'That's why I like it.' And he let me run with it. And it's my favorite movie I've ever, ever worked on in my life. I know it's a major departure. But that's one of the reasons I loved it, and this was always meant to just be a little movie that I wanted to leave in the world for my kids when I'm gone.
In TV, the one that came most from the heart was Midnight Mass. And for my features, this is it. And I kind of feel like that feeling I've always had of, 'What if your career goes away? What if Hollywood doesn't want you anymore?' If that happens now … I'd be crushed, of course, but I'd walk away being like, 'I got to do Midnight Mass and Chuck. I'm good.' Those are those are my favorites.
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Tom's Guide

21 hours ago

• Tom's Guide

'The Life of Chuck' star discusses screening film with director Mike Flanagan, his favorite performances from the Stephen King adaptation and more

"The Life of Chuck" is a 2025 summer movie I've long been anticipating. Directed by horror icon Mike Flanagan, this movie is adapted from a Stephen King short story about a man, Chuck (Tom Hiddleston), whose death seems to coincide with the end of the year, it won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, and since then, it's been on my radar as a potential Oscar contender. But it only just debuted in the U.S. earlier this month, with select theaters premiering it on June 6 and a wide release on June 13. That made it one of seven must-watch movies to come out on June 6, and it also means you might not have yet had a chance to see it. Lucky for you, I managed to sit down with "The Life of Chuck" star David Dastmalchian. He plays a grieving parent named Josh in the film, and I got to talk to him about the movie — which, for the record, I saw and loved — and why it needs to be the next reason you go to your local cinema. Now, while "The Life of Chuck" might not be a familiar name to you, Mike Flanagan probably is and Stephen King almost certainly is. And if you know anything about those two, you'd likely go into this movie expecting an eerie horror/thriller. It was a really special night, and there was not a dry eye in the house." But that's not what this movie is about. Instead, it's a deeply emotional film, at times uplifting and at times heartbreaking. So I wasn't entirely shocked to learn that when Flanagan screened the movie for some close friends, including Dastmalchian, it made several members of the cast and crew tear up. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. "I cried twice when I saw the movie for the first time," Dastmalchian recounted. "[It] was at Mike's house. He showed a group of us close friends from the game night, showed us "[The] Life of Chuck," and we also, that same night, watched [writer/director] Bryan Fuller's [upcoming movie] "Dust Bunny." It was a really special night, and there was not a dry eye in the house." As for what made Dastmalchian tear up? An incredible performance from Matthew Lillard in the first act of the movie. "When Matt Lillard tries to, you know, encapsulate what it is that's going on with him and why things are starting to feel almost pointless in the day-to-day activities of what people are trying to do. It's such a beautiful speech. It's such a beautiful moment. And I just, I don't know, that's one that will always stand out, very special in my mind." Lillard's performance isn't the only one to watch in "The Life of Chuck" — though it is incredible. In fact, I don't think that there's a single bad performance in the movie, something Dastmalchian was quick to agree with me on. "Every single performance, from Rahul [Kohli] to Sam [Sloyan], Karen [Gillan], it's just a wealth of incredible, incredible work." But when I pressed Dastmalchian for a performance that stood out above the rest, he had a clear answer, and one I couldn't argue with, having seen the film myself. "Chiwetel [Ejiofor], in many ways, carries this film. Dastmalchian declared as I nodded in agreement. "I know that Tom [Hiddleston] is Chuck, and Tom embodies Chuck. And what he does is so wonderful, and it's like a centerpiece of the film. But Chiwetel really carries on his shoulders the weight of what's happening in the world." The Olivier Award-winning actor was also Dastmalchian's scene partner for the film, and as David was quick to point out, that was an incredible experience in its own right. "He's the person in these moments of consultation and conversation with characters like mine, like Karen's, like Matt's, and — my god — can I just say what an incredible scene partner that guy is? Like when I got to give that monologue about the internet and Pornhub and all that stuff, as silly as some of that is, it's also very heartbreaking. And getting to make eye contact with such a fine and deep, resonant actor was really cool." As I already mentioned, "The Life of Chuck" stars Tom Hiddleston as Charles "Chuck" Krantz, whose death seems to coincide with the death of the universe. The story is told in reverse chronological order, starting with the end of Chuck's life and working its way back to Chuck's childhood as an orphan living with his grandparents (Mark Hamill and Mia Sara). Alongside Hiddleston, the movie also stars Jacob Tremblay, Benjamin Pajak and Cody Flanagan as younger versions of Chuck. Watch 'The Life of Chuck' in theaters now Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made. Here's what he's been watching lately:

Yahoo

a day ago

• Yahoo

Tony Talk: Our extremely early 2026 awards predictions for ‘Ragtime,' ‘Waiting for Godot,' Kristin Chenoweth, and all the buzzy new shows

Welcome to Tony Talk, a column in which Gold Derby contributors Sam Eckmann and David Buchanan offer Tony Awards analysis. Two weeks after the 2025 Tonys, we discuss the upcoming Broadway season and forecast likely 2026 Tony contenders. David Buchanan: Last June, you and I offered our earliest predictions for what could contend and even win at the Tonys a whole 12 months in the future! Looking back at our extremely early 2025 predictions, we hit some nails on the head, including the Best Musical Revival and Best Actress in a Musical showdowns between Gypsy and Sunset Boulevard and stars Audra McDonald and Nicole Scherzinger, respectively. For the 2025-26 Broadway season — which has already kicked off with Jean Smart in the solo play Call Me Izzy — it looks like the revivals are once again front and center. We have remountings of musicals Ragtime, Chess, and The Rocky Horror Show forthcoming, as well as plays Art, Waiting for Godot, and Fallen Angels, among others. Do you think we have any potential winners in those lists? More from GoldDerby 'Rosemead,' starring Lucy Liu, takes top prize at Bentonville Film Festival 'The Last of Us': How the 'Lord of the Rings' VFX team (and marshmallows) made the Battle of Jackson 'Batman Forever' and 'Batman Begins' share an anniversary week - and a surprising Oscar connection Sam Eckmann: To your list of musical revivals, I would add Cats: The Jellicle Ball. This reimagining of the classic Andrew Lloyd Webber musical ditches the feline body suits and sets the story in the world of ballroom. The show was a sold-out hit off-Broadway and though a Broadway run isn't official, a cheeky new social media account for the show has been teasing a transfer for months. Should it transfer, it will be an immediate frontrunner in the Best Musical Revival category. That said, Ragtime, Chess, and The Rocky Horror Show (which will be directed by newly minted Tony winner Sam Pinkleton) are rarely seen but beloved musicals. So this category promises to be an epic showdown yet again! The race for Best Musical is harder to predict since so many new tuners have yet to officially announce their runs. But we do know that director Michael Arden (now a two-time Tony winner thanks to Parade and Maybe Happy Ending) will helm a pair of new musicals: The Queen of Versailles, starring Kristin Chenoweth, and a stage adaptation of The Lost Boys. Do you think Arden could add a third trophy to his mantle next year? Steve Eichner/Variety via Getty Images Buchanan: Next year, either Pinkleton or Arden could join the list of only eight directors in the history of the Tonys to win back-to-back trophies, like Danya Taymor tried to do this year with John Proctor Is the Villain, so that should make for a very exciting race! With his two Tony-winning projects plus Once on This Island and Deaf West's Spring Awakening, I know never to underestimate Arden. Queen of Versailles is a huge creative swing, and though I didn't see the Boston try-out, word of mouth suggests it needs some judicious tightening of its runtime and of its tone. Based on critics' reviews, it sounds like the show may be more of an awards contender for Chenoweth and composer Stephen Schwartz than for directing, despite the humongous scope and set of the musical, which centers on real-life billionaire Jackie Siegel and her dream to construct the largest private residence in America. The Lost Boys is the bigger question mark in my mind. Vampire musicals have an infamous track record on Broadway — Dance of the Vampires, Elton John's Lestat, to name just two — but the song officially released by the Rescues, who composed the score, is strong, as is Arden's creative team, so this could be a contender, sight unseen. But before we pivot to the play categories, let's stick with Chenoweth and dive into Best Actress in a Musical. Folks have called her performance as Siegel the best of her career, but she'll be potentially contending against Caissie Levy in Ragtime as Mother, a two-time Tony-nominated role for Marin Mazzie and Christiane Noll, plus Lea Michele in Chess as Florence, a Tony-nominated role for Judy Kuhn. Do you think we'll have as cutthroat a Best Actress race in 2026 as we did this year? SEE Tony Talk: Dissecting those shocking wins for 'Purpose,' Nicole Scherzinger, Darren Criss, and full show analysis Eckmann: You've already highlighted three formidable contenders who could make the lead actress race just as competitive as this year's. While we don't have a full picture of all the eligible contenders yet, it's hard to imagine a lineup without any of these women. That would mean that Levy and Michele score the first Tony nominations of their career. I believe Levy came close to a nomination with Hair and Frozen, and she is the type of Broadway mainstay that voters are eager to reward once the right part comes along. Michele is still riding high on a renewed sense of goodwill after rescuing the recent revival of Funny Girl, and the score to Chess is perfectly suited to her high belting capabilities. Speaking of Chess, Michele's costars should also find themselves hotly competitive. Most Broadway fans are already familiar with Tony winner Aaron Tveit, but I suspect the über-talented Nicholas Christopher to finally cement himself as a Broadway superstar with this revival. If you're a theater nerd whose never heard him sing before, prepare yourself for your new obsession. While there are far too many question marks with the musicals at this early stage — I desperately need to know who Pinkleton is going to cast as Frank 'N' Furter in Rocky Horror — we know much more about the plays since the fall is front-loaded with them. I attended Call Me Izzy, the first production of the 2025-26 season, the day before this year's Tony Awards. While the script itself may not be remembered a full year from now in the Best Play race, star Jean Smart is at the height of her powers, delivering a solo performance so devastating that voters will surely be able to remember it next spring. Other contenders for lead actress in a play will surely include whichever mystery actress is cast in Second Stage's revival of Marjorie Prime, which won accolades for star Lois Smith in the off-Broadway run — though at 94, I'm not expecting her to sign up for the Broadway staging. An audition notice has also spoiled that the play Little Bear Ridge is also aiming for Broadway this season. Laurie Metcalf starred in this Samuel D. Hunter play at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. This could be Hunter's first play to transfer to Broadway, and Metcalf is a seemingly guaranteed Tony nominee should she reprise her role. Hunter's The Whale earned Shuler Hensley a Lucille Lortel Award, and the film adaptation scored an Oscar for Brendan Fraser. Perhaps he's written Metcalf a role worthy of Tony No. 3. What plays are you looking forward to next season? SEE 'Every beat is meticulously crafted': An oral history of the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning play 'Purpose' Buchanan: It would be so wonderful to have Metcalf back on Broadway after her Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? shuttered prematurely due to COVID in March 2020. Yes, there are a lot of very exciting plays already announced for the season, from Marjorie Prime to fellow Pulitzer finalist Becky Shaw and Tony winner David Lindsay-Abaire's upper-crust satire The Balusters. I'm particularly interested in the U.K. transfers of Oedipus starring the absolutely fabulous Mark Strong and Lesley Manville in a modern, election night retelling of the classic Greek tragedy, as well as the true-story, chilling Punch. The announcement of Pulitzer winner Stephen Adly Guirgis's stage adaptation of Dog Day Afternoon caught me by surprise but seems like a brilliant work to adapt to the stage, especially with its two The Bear stars Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal. Speaking of those performers, the Best Actor in a Play race already sounds competitive. We'll soon see Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter in Waiting for Godot, and I'll be especially curious to know what director Jamie Lloyd does with the play. He's been in a musical mode lately with this year's Tony winner Sunset Boulevard and now the London revival of Evita with Rachel Zegler, but I have been most taken with his staging of plays including Betrayal in 2019, and it'll be interesting to see how his minimalism matches this classic drama. Yasmina Reza's ART brings a trio of Tony-winning heavyweights back to Broadway with Bobby Cannavale, Neil Patrick Harris, and James Corden. Sight unseen, I'm already rooting for Strong to take home his first Tony, but I'm excited for surprises this Broadway season, too! SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby 'Maybe Happy Ending' star Darren Criss on his Tony nomination for playing a robot: 'Getting to do this is the true win' Who Needs a Tony to Reach EGOT? Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' Click here to read the full article.

Geek Tyrant

2 days ago

• Geek Tyrant

New Featurette For Stephen King's THE LIFE OF CHUCK Focuses on The Amazing Cast — GeekTyrant

A new featurette for the film adaptation of Stephen King's The Life of Chuck . has been released and it focuses on the incredible supporting ensemble cast, and what they bring to the movie. The video highlights Heather Langenkamp, Mia Sara, Carl Lumbly, Matthew Lillard, David Dastmalchian, Karen Gillan, Annalise Basso, and Harvey Guillen. This is such a great, wonderful, and inspiring film and it's one that people have to go out and experience on the big screen! Director Mike Flanagan did an amazing job bringing this story to life! The Life of Chuck is 'three separate stories linked to tell the biography of Charles Krantz in reverse, beginning with his death from a brain tumor at 39 and ending with his childhood in a supposedly haunted house.' The film is described as an apocalyptic version of It's a Wonderful Life , and King, who has seen the film, says that it's 'a happiness machine.' It's also described as 'a Stand By Me for the multiple lives within each of us, pulled between our dreams and down-to-earth pragmatism.' Hiddleston previously talked about the film, saying: 'Well, he's written something very tender and very wise. I think there is a great wisdom in the soul of the story, which is that it takes courage to hold on to what is good in a world that feels like it's falling apart.' When talking about the disaster aspect of the story, Flanagan explains why this one is different: 'A disaster movie has people meeting the end while running from tidal waves, and this story has people sitting quietly holding hands looking at the stars.' Hiddleston went on to say: 'The life of every human being is a constellation, as expressed in this film. There are certain moments which will burn most brightly as individual stars. 'Sometimes it feels like the world is going to hell in a handcart, and it's full of pain and suffering, and it is—but there are moments of deep joy and deep connection.' The movie is now playing in theaters.