©Courtesy of Neon
The first teaser for Neon’s “The Life of Chuck“ was released today and, while short, it gives off “The Truman Show“ or “The Curios Case of Benjamin Button” vibes. It opens with an image of two people holding hands, then a sound that resembles a ticking clock, a blinking yellow stoplight and Tom Hiddleston’s Charles “Chuck” Kranz walking through a modern, Main Street-type setting before a voiceover paraphrasing Walt Whitman intones, “The universe contains multitudes, but it also contains … me.”
The film garnered the 2024 TIFF People’s Choice Award which centers around Stephen King’s short story of the same title, which is included in his 2020 novella ‘If It Bleeds’ among other stories. “The Life of Chuck” is a strange, surrealist comedy that presents a story of human mortality in a strange and surreal way, instead of straight-out horror.
Besides Hiddleston, the film also stars Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Matthew Lillard, Harvey Guillén, Q’orianka Kilcher, Kate Siegel and David Dastmalchian.
For those who are not familiar with King, this is a new approach, and Flanagan, a writer/director/editor/producer who is well-known for horror films like Absentia, Oculus, Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Gerald’s Game (also a King adaptation) and Doctor Sleep, is also a bit of a departure.
The movie is told in chronological order from the end to the beginning, and also features Jacob Tremblay and Benjamin Pajak in short clips in the trailer portraying the early stages of Chuck’s life.
“The Life of Chuck” is in theaters in June.
©Courtesy of Neon