Summary

• Mike Flanagan's adaptation of The Life of Chuck focuses on making Chuck's imaginary characters more meaningful.
• Changes to Stephen King's novella include adding echoes of real people Chuck encountered in his life.
• Flanagan's track record of improving source material in adaptations assures audiences The Life of Chuck will impress.

every Mike Flanagan horror show and movie, the director has previously helmed two direct adaptations of King's stories: Gerald's Game and Doctor Sleep. Both received a positive reception from both viewers and critics, proving Flanagan's ability to deliver some of the most compelling live-action takes on the King of Horror's works.

With two adaptations of King's stories out of the way, Mike Flanagan is now bringing a third one, which seems to be among his most promising projects. Everything from its cast to its production is exciting, leaving audiences eagerly anticipating how Flanagan will bring this new Stephen King story to life. Recently, Flanagan also revealed how he is changing some aspects of the original story, which, interestingly, has the potential to make the movie even better than its source material.

Mike Flanagan's Life Of Chuck Will Make The People In Chuck's Mind More Meaningful

The Story Change Makes The Movie More Interesting

Mike Flanagan's movie, The Life of Chuck, is based on Stephen King's novella of the same name, which was first published in the 2020 collection If It Bleeds. The Life of Check presents a genre-bending story that walks through three major chapters of Charles Krantz's life in reverse — from the day of his death to his early childhood experiences of living in a haunted house. A significant part of the story's narrative is driven by the people inside Chuck's head, which is something Mike Flanagan is going to change in his adaptation.

As the director confirmed (via Talking Scared), the people in Chuck's head in his movie will not be random, fictional folks like the ones portrayed in the original Stephen King story. Instead, they would be "echoes of very real people who existed in the real world who Chuck encountered throughout his life." This auteur explained that he decided to bring this change because he thought it would be a "cool" concept where audiences would be able to see how and why Chuck pulled some real people into his imagination and held onto them long after they had departed from his life.

Here's Mike Flanagan's full statement:

I don't think it does. And I felt that way on both sides of it, because when you're first watching the movie, you don't necessarily know that. That's a revelation, if you've not read the story, the movie will reveal that to you in time. But if you do know that, I don't think it changes it at all, because the emotions the characters are going through are so honest and relateable. And we've made a couple little clever changes to kind of make it so that these characters don't only exist in this imagined realm. That they're all echoes of very real people who existed in the real world who Chuck encountered throughout his life.

That's one of the big changes we made to this story was that the people you meet at the beginning, you see them again as Chuck encounters them throughout his life, and you can see how and why he pulled them into his imagination, and how they continue to exist in his mind even after the real people have moved on, in one way or another. And so that's one of the very few changes we made for the film. It seemed like a real cool opportunity to do something like that.

Stephen King Movies Have A History Of Being Better Than The Source Material

Mike Flanagan Is Also Known For Bringing Good Changes To The Stories He Adapts

Changes to original stories are often met with immense skepticism, and rightfully so. Not all filmmakers are capable of bringing positive changes to the source materials they adapt. However, Mike Flanagan's creative decisions can be trusted because he has a long history of delivering adaptations that are usually at par with their source materials and sometimes even better.

...even on paper, it seems like the little changes Mike Flanagan is bringing to Stephen King's The Life of Chuck will make the movie even better than the original story.

The director seems to perfectly understand how written text can translate well to the audiovisual storytelling medium. He has also demonstrated a keen ability to maintain the essence of original books while making them more accessible to audiences through his filmmaking. Most book changes are unwelcome by audiences because they seem unnecessary. However, even on paper, it seems like the little changes Mike Flanagan is bringing to Stephen King's The Life of Chuck will make the movie even better than the original story.

Even when it comes to Stephen King's movie adaptations, in general, they have a history of often being better than the source material. 1408, 1922, Gerald's Game, The Mist, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Shining are all perfect examples of this. The success rate of Stephen King's movie adaptations and Mike Flanagan's track record affirm that The Life of Chuck will greatly benefit from the changes to the original novella's story.