Last week was a fun trip for Stephen King fans. In addition to a bunch of anniversaries, Heather Langenkamp sharing her personal history with Pet Sematary, and the adaptation of The Long Walk adding its first two stars, we also learned that a TV show based on The Institute is officially a go as an MGM+ original. There was a lot to be excited about… and this past week hasn’t been so bad either.
This new edition of The King Beat is packed with goodies, as there are not only a couple of new anniversaries to celebrate/reflect on, but there is also some awesome news about Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck to digest. Without any further ado, let’s dig in!
Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck Is Set To Premiere At The Toronto International Film Festival, And I’m Raising My Hopes For Oscar Glory
Despite the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences traditionally demonstrating a bias against the horror genre, Stephen King adaptations have a long history with the Oscars. The very first King movie, Brian De Palma’s Carrie, received two standout nominations (Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress); Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans got a Best Adapted Screenplay nod for Rob Reiner's Stand By Me; Kathy Bates won Hollywood’s highest honor for her work in Reiner’s Misery; and Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile were collectively up for 11 trophies in their respective years of qualification.
Unfortunately, there has been a bit of an awards drought for King movies recently, as no title has been nominated for a prize in about 25 years, but it appears now as though Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck is being set up to be the title that ends that negative streak. It was officially announced this week that Flanagan’s feature follow up to 2019’s Doctor Sleep is going to have a standout fall festival premiere, as the work has been selected as one of the titles that will play at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Nothing is guaranteed, but the news means that the movie is now set up to make a potential run during the upcoming awards season.
A specific date for the world premiere has not yet been set, but as you can see above, the news of the TIFF acceptance came with a first look at the movie. Those who have read the novella on which The Life Of Chuck is based will recognize the image as being a billboard from the first section of the story, which centers on a man named Marty Anderson as he goes about his daily life and starts seeing advertising everywhere that reads “Charles Krantz: 39 Great Years! Thanks Chuck!” It’s ultimately revealed that Marty isn’t real, and instead is part of an internalized world in the titular Chuck’s mind – which is slowly fading away as Chuck dies from a brain tumor at the age of 39.
Based on everything we’ve heard about The Life Of Chuck, it certainly sounds like the project will be right up the Academy’s alley. When CinemaBlend spoke with star Tom Hiddleston about the project late last year, he made a direct comparison between the movie and The Shawshank Redemption, which memorably earned seven Oscar nominations in 1995 despite practically no one having seen the movie in theaters. Karen Gillan has also spoken about the work, and she said that seeing an early cut left her “crying for days.”
Sadly, The Life Of Chuck has not announced a distributor yet, which means that we don’t yet know if the film will get a theatrical and/or streaming release date before the end of the year, but King fans everywhere are certainly keeping fingers crossed. The Toronto International Film Festival will run this year from September 5-15, and we’ll keep you up to date here on CinemaBlend with all of the latest news about the premiere of the new Mike Flanagan movie.
On The 20th Anniversary Of The Salem's Lot Miniseries Remake, I Formally Ask For A Blu-ray Release
Later this year, Stephen King fans will finally get their opportunity to see writer/director Gary Dauberman’s Salem’s Lot. While the movie doesn’t have an official release date set up just yet, it has been confirmed that it will be arriving for people with a Max subscription later this year. Fingers are crossed that it will live up to the highest hopes of Constant Readers – but while we wait for that film, I want to take a minute to celebrate the previous remake of Salem’s Lot.
I’m talking about the Salem’s Lot miniseries that aired on TNT back in 2004 – the first episode premiering exactly 20 year ago today (June 20). The adaptation doesn’t receive nearly as much love as director Tobe Hooper’s version from 1979, but it’s an underrated work, and I’m choosing to keep my fingers crossed that it will join the HD age of physical media in the near future with a proper Blu-ray release.
Directed by Mikael Salomon and featuring a stellar cast that includes Rob Lowe, Andre Braugher, Rutger Hauer, Samantha Mathis, and James Cromwell, 2004’s Salem’s Lot is far from a perfect miniseries (it falls short of being called one of the best Stephen King TV projects), but it’s successful at pulling off moves that were impossible to make on 1970s television – including adapting some of the scariest sequences from the book. It does make some choices that are a tad too dark, impacting the audience’s appreciation for the characters, but it makes some bold swings with the material that end up being successful.
To date, the only physical media version of 2004’s Salem’s Lot is on DVD, but it is worth noting that Stephen King fans can watch the miniseries in HD via digital rental/purchase on Amazon Prime Video and Apple. So why no Blu-ray yet? Scream Factory notably did a fantastic job earlier this year putting out a restored version of Mick Garris’ remake of The Shining, and I’m hoping that they or another boutique label – be it Kino Lorber or Vinegar Syndrome – can get the rights and put out a disc that can be added to my Ultimate Stephen King Collection.
Reflecting On The 25th Anniversary Of Stephen King’s Near Fatal Accident
June 19, 1999 was a fateful day that Stephen King fans will never forget. While out for a walk on a quiet stretch of highway near his lake home in Maine, King was struck by a van that swerved off the road when the driver got distracted by his dog. As recounted in the 2000 book On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft, the author was able to react to the vehicle, but he was unable to dodge it, and he ended up suffering devastating injuries. Twenty-five years ago, one of the greatest, most popular writers of all time was nearly killed.
Reflecting on this event a quarter-century later, we can not only be grateful that Stephen King survived, but that he continued to produce incredible books. Not only did he spend years channeling his trauma through his writing (key elements of Dreamcatcher, From A Buick 8, Lisey’s Story and Duma Key all tie back to the near fatal incident), but he also completed his epic Dark Tower series and reinvented himself as a mystery writer guided by his fictional muse: offbeat detective Holly Gibney. Some of his greatest novels, including Revival, 11.22.63, and Under The Dome have been published in the 21st century, and it’s scary to think how close the world came to being deprived of all that brilliant work.
This week, fans the world over should express gratitude that Stephen King is still with us, and I’ll let the writer himself have the final word on the matter:
I’m also glad I didn’t die. https://t.co/Q6pwVIRsCdJune 19, 2024
Recommendation Of The Week: “The Answer Man”
It’s now been almost a full month since the release of You Like It Darker, but I am far from done recommending stories from its pages. In recent weeks, I’ve been using this section of The King Beat to highlight my favorite titles from the new collection, including “Two Talented Bastids,” “The Dreamers, “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream” and “Rattlesnakes,” and now it’s time to sing the praises of “The Answer Man.”
As I noted a few weeks ago in this column, “The Answer Man” is a story that took Stephen King nearly 50 years to finish, as he started it back in the 1970s, forgot about it, and only rediscovered it recently. In it, we are introduced to protagonist Phil Parker as he deals with a serious conundrum: a promising young lawyer, he is given the opportunity to join his family’s prestigious Boston law firm, but his true desire is to move to a small town and hang out his own shingle. He’s scared that his choice could ruin his life and the life of the woman he loves – but everything changes when he is driving around one day and comes upon a stranger at a roadside table who proclaims himself as The Answer Man.
For a modest price, The Answer Man is willing to answer Phil’s most pressing questions for a limited amount of time… but does anyone really want to know cold, hard truths about their own future? That’s a question that Stephen King addresses in devastating fashion.
That wraps up this week’s edition of The King Beat, but I’ll be back next Thursday with a brand new column here on CinemaBlend. In the meantime, you can read about all of the King projects that are currently in the works for both the big and small screens with our Upcoming Stephen King Movies and TV guide.
