Mike Flanagan Is Adapting Another Stephen King Story with Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill

Together, author Stephen King and director Mike Flanagan are two of the most prolific and successful figures handling macabre material in each of their industries, so it likely only makes sense that their paths keep crossing. Flanagan has already adapted several King properties in his award-studded career, including 2017’s Gerald’s Game for Netflix, and 2019’s Shining sequel Doctor Sleep. And King, well, he just keeps on writing and producing more material fit for adaptations, such as 2020 short story anthology If It Bleeds. And now Flanagan will reportedly be tackling that book’s story “The Life of Chuck,” while bringing some new star actors into his recurring stable of performers in the form of Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill. According to Deadline, Flanagan is directing, writing and producing The Life of Chuck for Intrepid Pictures.

This is Flanagan’s first feature film since Doctor Sleep a few years ago, as the horror maestro has increasingly been exploring the deep end of serialization via a deal with Netflix that produced the likes of The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club and the still-upcoming The Fall of the House of Usher. That deal has finally run its course, which led to Flanagan signing a first-look overall TV deal with Amazon, where he will reportedly be tackling what we can only assume will be a grandiose adaptation of King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower.

The Life of Chuck, on the other hand, will likely be a significantly more intimate, lower-budget venture, relying more on the performance of Loki‘s Hiddleston as the titular character in question. The short story from King is a series of three separate stories at three points in the life of a man named Charles Krantz, who experiences some odd phenomena involving time, following a childhood spent in a reportedly haunted house. If you ask us, that sounds right in Flanagan’s conceptual wheelhouse, with obvious parallels to a film like Oculus. Star Wars icon Mark Hamill, meanwhile, will join in the role of Albie, and is also set to appear in The Fall of the House of Usher for Netflix as well. Flanagan does like his reoccurring cast members, after all.

Tonally, The Life of Chuck will reportedly invoke well-liked, not-so-spooky Stephen King projects such as Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. We’ll bring you more information on this intriguing development as it arrives.