It's the end of the world but it's cosy
But despite an opening segment depicting a global apocalypse — and a supernatural component in the third act — this isn't a film built around horror beats. It marches to the thrum of a different drummer altogether.
The Life of Chuck shoots for life-affirming inspiration, which is not unfamiliar territory for King, whose non-horror works include stories that have spawned the films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption.
One startling distinction is that this film is adventurously constructed around three seemingly disparate stories.
In the first, the citizens of a community are rocked by events that signal the end of the world is at hand.
The events, which include California breaking off into the Pacific, are of growing concern to small-town teacher Marty Anderson (Chewitel Ejiofor), who decides to help his community cope with the breakdown of society in a series of meetings that function as a combination of parent-teacher sessions crossed with psychotherapy.
The circumstances present an opportunity for Marty to come to an understanding with his ex-wife, Felicia (Karen Gillan), even as both seek to understand the mysterious preponderance of billboards and TV ads sporting an image of a benign-looking accountant type, bearing the legend: 'Charles Krantz. 39 Great Years. Thanks Chuck.'
Who is Charles Krantz? The inspired second segment tentatively answers that question with Tom Hiddleston's titular Chuck, indeed an accountant, visiting a town for a business conference.
Neon
Tom Hiddleston (right) plays the title character opposite Annalise Basso in the second of three separate tales that make up The Life of Chuck.
Wandering the quaint streets, he happens upon busker Taylor (Taylor Gordon) literally trying to drum up some cash. Inspired, Charles approaches the freshly dumped Janice (Annalise Basso) and the two proceed to dance up a storm. Questions remain: Who is this guy? What does the film's first part have to do with its second?
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A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene.
All questions are answered in the third segment, in which we learn the life history of Chuck, starting with a tragedy that sees young Chuck (Jacob Tremblay) being raised by loving grandparents (Mark Hamill and Mia Sara) while navigating his way to adulthood, encompassing a love of dance and his granddad's sober admonition: 'People like dancers, but they need accountants.'
This segment offers the key to the film's puzzle, in which a teacher explains a Walt Whitman poem to young Chuck, also quoted in the first act.
In his other horror projects, such as the vampire series Midnight Mass, Flanagan demonstrated he is a filmmaker who should never be accused of sentimentality. He has a gift for portraying human frailty in a way that makes it all the more devastating when his characters meet terrible genre fates.
Even without the supernatural hoohah, Flanagan's gift holds firm here. Stressing the humanistic, his film is ultimately a celebration of creativity, whether that takes the form of brazenly dancing in the street, or engaging in a secret creative process for an audience of one.
Dan Anderson / Neon
Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor, left) and his wife Felicia (Karen Gillan) are facing the end of the world.
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In a way, Randall King was born into the entertainment beat.
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Toronto Sun
11-07-2025
- Toronto Sun
Dark series 'The Institute' adaptation gets Stephen King's thumbs up
Published Jul 11, 2025 • Last updated 19 minutes ago • 4 minute read Joe Freeman in a scene from 'The Institute.' Photo by Chris Reardon / MGM+ Stephen King has a rule for anyone wanting to adapt one of his books for the big or small screen. It's basically the Hippocratic oath for intellectual property — first, do no harm. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account 'When you deviate from the story that I wrote, you do so at your own risk,' he says in a recent interview from his home in Maine. 'I know what I'm doing and I'm not sure that screenwriters always do or that producers and directors always do.' Not everyone has listened to King, who has enjoyed hit adaptations — 'The Shawshank Redemption,' 'Stand By Me,' 'Misery,' 'It' and 'The Shining' — as well as flops _ 'Salem's Lot,' 'Graveyard Shift' and 'The Lawnmower Man.' The industrious novelist has lately watched as a wave of adaptations are crafted for theaters or streaming platforms, a list that includes 'The Life of Chuck' and the upcoming 'The Long Walk,' 'The Running Man' and 'It: Welcome to Derry.' It also includes the eight-episode series 'The Institute,' which debuts on MGM+ on Sunday (there's no air date in Canada yet). Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It's about a secret government facility where kids with special talents — telekinesis and telepathy — are imprisoned and put to dark geopolitical uses. Their bedrooms are faithfully re-created and creepy posters — 'Your Gift Is Important' and 'I Choose to be Happy' — line the halls. Does this small-screen adaptation of his 2019 book get King's approval? 'I'm talking to you which is a pretty good sign,' he says, laughing. He even signed on as executive producer. 'When I write a book, it's a single-person sport and when these people do a TV show or a movie it becomes a team sport. So you expect some changes and, sometimes, man, they're really good.' What's 'The Institute' about'? 'The Institute' stars Mary-Louise Parker as a sinister scientist and Ben Barnes as a small-town cop on opposite sides as the group of children are kidnapped and exploited. The series is faithful to the book, but includes some changes, like setting it entirely in Maine and aging the hero up so as not to appear too sadistic. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. That hero — 14-year-old Luke Ellis, played winningly by Joe Freeman — is the latest youngster with special powers that King has manifested, a line that stretches back to the heroine of 'Carrie,' Danny Torrance in 'The Shining' and Charlie McGee in 'Firestarter.' 'I thought to myself, what would happen if a bunch of kids that had psychic powers could see enough of the future to tell when certain moments were going to come along,' he says. 'But the kids would be wrecked by this process and they would be kept in a place where they could serve the greater good. It was a moral problem that I really liked.' King has a special respect for young adults, who he says can be brave and behave nobly under pressure but who can also be mean and petty. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He says he was inspired by William Golding, who wrote the iconic 'Lord of the Flies,' a dystopian novel about a group of schoolboys who while trying to survive on a remote island unlock their own barbarism. 'He was talking to his wife before he wrote the book and he said, 'What would it be like if I wrote a story about boys and the way that boys really acted?' And so I tried to write a book about kids the way that kids really act,' says King. Executive producer and co-writer Benjamin Cavell says King resists the impulse to be overly involved in the process, instead identifying people he trusts to do right by the material. 'So much of the pleasure of King's writing is the access he gives his reader to the deepest, darkest, most private thoughts and dreams and desires of his characters; the adaptor's task is to make all that external and cinematic,' says Cavell. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Monsters inside of us' Jack Bender has become something of a King whisperer, helping adapt both King's 'Mr. Mercedes' and 'The Outsider' to the screen. This time, he helped direct and executive produce 'The Institute.' 'I count my blessings to be in the position of someone he creatively trusts,' says Bender. 'He is a genius at tapping into the fears we all share of what's hiding under our beds. For me, both 'Mr. Mercedes' and 'The Institute' deal with those fears by focusing on the monsters inside of us human beings, not just outside in the world around us.' The first thing Bender and Cavell had to figure out was what form 'The Institute' would take — a standalone film or a series. 'In the case of 'The Institute,' which was a 576-page novel packed with rich, fascinating characters that would need time to connect and be with each other, I didn't want to shrink it into a 110 minute movie that would've become the 'X-Kids,'' says Bender. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. King says that while Hollywood has a seemingly insatiable appetite for his books, he hasn't gotten more cinematic as a writer _ he always has been. 'I am one of the first writers that was actually influenced by television as well as movies. 'I grew up with the idea that things should be cinematic and that you should look at things in a visual way, a very sensory way.' King was also pleased that the adapters of 'The Institute' made sure not to change the name of Barnes' small-town cop, Tim. 'I named him Tim because I read somewhere that no great thing was ever done by a man named Tim. And so I thought to myself, 'Yeah, well, OK, I'll call him Tim and he can do great things.''
Winnipeg Free Press
10-07-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Dark series ‘The Institute' adaptation gets author Stephen King's thumbs up
NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen King has a rule for anyone wanting to adapt one of his books for the big or small screen. It's basically the Hippocratic oath for intellectual property — first, do no harm. 'When you deviate from the story that I wrote, you do so at your own risk,' he says in a recent interview from his home in Maine. 'I know what I'm doing and I'm not sure that screenwriters always do or that producers and directors always do.' Not everyone has listened to King, who has enjoyed hit adaptations — 'The Shawshank Redemption,' 'Stand By Me,' 'Misery,' 'It' and 'The Shining' — as well as flops — 'Salem's Lot,' 'Graveyard Shift' and 'The Lawnmower Man.' The industrious novelist has lately watched as a wave of adaptations are crafted for theaters or streaming platforms, a list that includes 'The Life of Chuck' and the upcoming 'The Long Walk,' 'The Running Man' and 'It: Welcome to Derry.' It also includes the eight-episode series 'The Institute,' which debuts on MGM+ on Sunday. It's about a secret government facility where kids with special talents — telekinesis and telepathy — are imprisoned and put to dark geopolitical uses. Their bedrooms are faithfully re-created and creepy posters — 'Your Gift Is Important' and 'I Choose to be Happy' — line the halls. Does this small-screen adaptation of his 2019 book get King's approval? 'I'm talking to you which is a pretty good sign,' he says, laughing. He even signed on as executive producer. 'When I write a book, it's a single-person sport and when these people do a TV show or a movie it becomes a team sport. So you expect some changes and, sometimes, man, they're really good.' What's 'The Institute' about'? 'The Institute' stars Mary-Louise Parker as a sinister scientist and Ben Barnes as a small-town cop on opposite sides as the group of children are kidnapped and exploited. The series is faithful to the book, but includes some changes, like setting it entirely in Maine and aging the hero up so as not to appear too sadistic. That hero — 14-year-old Luke Ellis, played winningly by Joe Freeman — is the latest youngster with special powers that King has manifested, a line that stretches back to the heroine of 'Carrie,' Danny Torrance in 'The Shining' and Charlie McGee in 'Firestarter.' 'I thought to myself, what would happen if a bunch of kids that had psychic powers could see enough of the future to tell when certain moments were going to come along,' he says. 'But the kids would be wrecked by this process and they would be kept in a place where they could serve the greater good. It was a moral problem that I really liked.' King has a special respect for young adults, who he says can be brave and behave nobly under pressure but who can also be mean and petty. He says he was inspired by William Golding, who wrote the iconic 'Lord of the Flies,' a dystopian novel about a group of schoolboys who while trying to survive on a remote island unlock their own barbarism. 'He was talking to his wife before he wrote the book and he said, 'What would it be like if I wrote a story about boys and the way that boys really acted?' And so I tried to write a book about kids the way that kids really act,' says King. Executive producer and co-writer Benjamin Cavell says King resists the impulse to be overly involved in the process, instead identifying people he trusts to do right by the material. 'So much of the pleasure of King's writing is the access he gives his reader to the deepest, darkest, most private thoughts and dreams and desires of his characters; the adaptor's task is to make all that external and cinematic,' says Cavell. 'Monsters inside of us' Jack Bender has become something of a King whisperer, helping adapt both King's 'Mr. Mercedes' and 'The Outsider' to the screen. This time, he helped direct and executive produce 'The Institute.' 'I count my blessings to be in the position of someone he creatively trusts,' says Bender. 'He is a genius at tapping into the fears we all share of what's hiding under our beds. For me, both 'Mr. Mercedes' and 'The Institute' deal with those fears by focusing on the monsters inside of us human beings, not just outside in the world around us.' The first thing Bender and Cavell had to figure out was what form 'The Institute' would take — a standalone film or a series. Currently on hiatus A review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe. 'In the case of 'The Institute,' which was a 576-page novel packed with rich, fascinating characters that would need time to connect and be with each other, I didn't want to shrink it into a 110 minute movie that would've become the 'X-Kids,'' says Bender. King says that while Hollywood has a seemingly insatiable appetite for his books, he hasn't gotten more cinematic as a writer — he always has been. 'I am one of the first writers that was actually influenced by television as well as movies. 'I grew up with the idea that things should be cinematic and that you should look at things in a visual way, a very sensory way.' King was also pleased that the adapters of 'The Institute' made sure not to change the name of Barnes' small-town cop, Tim. 'I named him Tim because I read somewhere that no great thing was ever done by a man named Tim. And so I thought to myself, 'Yeah, well, OK, I'll call him Tim and he can do great things.''
Winnipeg Free Press
15-06-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘How to Train Your Dragon' soars in box office debut with $83 million, beating ‘Lilo and Stitch'
LOS ANGELES (AP) — 'How to Train Your Dragon' took flight at the box office this weekend, proving that some remakes still have teeth. The Universal live-action adaptation of the beloved animated franchise soared to a strong $83 million debut in North American theaters, according to Comscore estimates Sunday. The film, directed by franchise veteran Dean DeBlois, follows the unlikely friendship between a young Viking named Hiccup (Mason Thames) and a dragon called Toothless. The reboot easily outpaced 2019's 'How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,' which opened with $55 million. It also claimed the No. 1 spot ahead of Disney's 'Lilo and Stitch,' which slipped to second place after topping the charts for three weekends. That hybrid live-action remake added another $15 million, pushing its domestic total past $386.3 million. 'Materialists,' a modern-day New York love story starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans, rounded out the top three films of the week with a $12 million debut. The romantic dramedy features Johnson as a savvy matchmaker caught between two suitors: a broke, struggling actor who happens to be her ex, and a wealthy 'unicorn' who seems too good to be true. 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning' slid to fourth place, taking in $10.3 million and avoiding a dip into single-digit territory. The John Wick spinoff 'Ballerina' fell to fifth place with $9.4 million, despite strong reviews from both critics and audiences. Directed by Len Wiseman, the action film stars Ana de Armas and features Keanu Reeves reprising his role in a supporting turn. In sixth place, 'Karate Kid: Legends' earned $5 million followed by 'Final Destination: Bloodlines' at seventh with $3.9 million. Wes Anderson's latest 'The Phoenician Scheme' brought in $3 million eighth place. 'The Life of Chuck,' based on a Stephen King story, placed ninth with $2.1 million. Rounding out the top 10 was 'Sinners.' The Ryan Coogler film starring Michael B. Jordan, drew $1.4 million. Top 10 movies by domestic box office With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore: 1. 'How to Train Your Dragon,' $83.7 million 2. 'Lilo and Stitch,' $15.5 million. 3. 'Materialists,' $12 million. 4. 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,' $10.3 million. 5. 'From the World of John Wick: Ballerina,' $9.4 million. 6. 'Karate Kid: Legends,' $5 million. 7. 'Final Destination: Bloodlines,' $3.9 million. 8. 'The Phoenician Scheme,' $3 million. 9. 'The Life of Chuck,' $2.1 million. 10. 'Sinners,' $1.4 million.
