After releasing his long-awaited adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher, horror auteur Mike Flanagan isn’t slowing down as he’s now going full speed ahead on his Stephen King film The Life of Chuck. It’s an independent project being filmed under a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement, so he took it upon himself today to introduce everyone who will be involved in bringing the story to life. Over on X (formerly Twitter), he revealed the rest of the cast that would be joining stars Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill in the project, which includes a mix of huge stars and alumni from a number of projects under his and Trevor Macy‘s Intrepid Pictures banner.
The first name Flanagan introduced was acting newcomer Taylor Gordon, a popular Instagram influencer and multi-talented musician for whom the director had plenty of praise. Flanagan has had incredible success with internet stars and relative acting newcomers in recent memory. He recently struck gold by bringing aboard TikTok sensation Ruth Codd who enjoyed stellar performances in The Midnight Club and the aforementioned Fall of the House of Usher. In terms of established stars, however, there’s no shortage of exciting names including Scream‘s Matthew Lillard, Color Out of Space‘s Q’Orianka Kilcher, and What We Do in the Shadows‘s Harvey Guillén alongside Mia Sara, Benjaman Pajak, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Antonio Raul Corbo, and David Dastmalchian.
As always, Flanagan has brought aboard a ton of his frequent collaborators from past Intrepid projects for The Life of Chuck, including several who were aboard his most recent effort at Netflix. That includes nine-time Flanagan veteran Kate Siegel and six-time collaborator Samantha Sloyan with fellow Usher alumni Carl Lumbly, Rahul Kohli, Matt Biedel, Sauriyan Sapkota, Michael Trucco, and Molly C. Quinn. Rounding out the bunch are Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Annalise Basso, Violet McGraw, and horror legend Heather Langenkamp. This slate of new stars bolsters a group that was already exciting with Hiddleston and Hamill joined by Karen Gillan, Jacob Tremblay, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
‘The Life of Chuck’ Is a Personal Story for Mike Flanagan
Flanagan is no stranger to adapting King stories, but he said in the thread that “The Life of Chuck is a very personal story for me, and a movie I am so grateful will be in the world.” The original story is pulled from King‘s If It Bleeds anthology which unravels the tale of Charles “Chuck” Krantz from end to beginning as it opens with his death at 39 due to a brain tumor before closing out with his childhood growing up in a cursed home. Similar themes are explored heavily in series like Usher and The Haunting of Hill House, though the genre production has also been related to King‘s less horrific and more dramatic works like The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, or The Green Mile.
Production on The Life of Chuck is currently underway in Alabama. Stay tuned here at Collider for further updates on the latest Flanagan project.
via Collider