Summary
- Karen Gillan praises The Life of Chuck as a masterpiece, despite it not being a horror film, leaving her with an existential crisis.
- The upcoming movie, a Stephen King adaptation, tells the reverse story of Charles Krantz’s life, featuring a star-studded ensemble cast.
- Director Mike Flanagan, known for his successful King adaptations, is expected to deliver another solid film, highly anticipated by fans and King himself.
Karen Gillan has shared some information about her upcoming role in the Stephen King adaptation, The Life of Chuck. Coming off the back of the success of her Marvel role as Nebula in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, the actress is looking for more accolades as part of the ensemble cast of the Mike Flanagan movie. While it may shock some, the actor has claimed that the film is a masterpiece, but it’s not exactly a horror movie.
Gillan spoke briefly about the new movie while discussing Late Bloomers, her latest coming-of-age drama, with MovieWeb. Late Bloomers is a major shift from some of her recent big-budget films of the MCU, and while The Life of Chuck is not a blockbuster film, the combination of King’s story and Flanagan’s growing reputation makes it a highly anticipated release. The movie also marks Gillan’s reunion with director Flanagan, who she worked with in the vastly underrated horror film Oculus.
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Gillan provided some insight about the film, saying, “What’s interesting is that it’s not really horror. If you know the short story, you’ll know that. But it’s beautiful. I feel like he’s created a masterpiece. I’ve just never seen anything like it before. It’s sort of experimental and just gives you an existential crisis.”
I just cried for days afterwards. And that sounds really dramatic and funny, but it just was one of those that, like, really stays with you for a long time.
The Life of Chuck is based on Stephen King’s novella, which was included in the anthology If It Bleeds. It tells the story of Charles Krantz, a man who dies of a brain tumor at 39. The story goes in reverse until it puts the reader in a haunted house during Krantz’s childhood. Gillan is joined by noteworthy performers like Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Jacob Tremblay, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Harvey Guillén, among others.
Mike Flanagan Knows How to Do Stephen King Adaptations
Stephen King’s books are challenging to adapt to the big or small screen. His books are famous for strong character arcs that are difficult to compress into a feature film because their dilemmas and problems often require more than regular character development. However, after two solid adaptations, like Gerald’s Game (2017) and Doctor Sleep (2019), both of which were praised by the writer himself, Flanagan has proved to be a director who understands how to work with King’s narratives.
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The Life of Chuck is still to be given a release date, but following Gillan’s comments, and Tom Hiddleston recently comparing it to The Shawshank Redemption, expectations of another solid adaptation are high. It’s clear Flanagan feels comfortable inside King’s genre-bending spectrum, and if The Life of Chuck takes a more contemplative and sober approach, it will most likely prove to be another winning combination.
