Interview With "The Life Of Chuck" Filmmaker Mike Flanagan

The Next Best Picture Podcast

Tv & Film

4.2 • 542 Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mike Flanagan knows horror. Any fan of the genre will tell you that he's one of the most exciting directors working today, creating haunting and uniquely terrifying films like "Oculus," "Gerald's Game," and "Doctor Sleep," not to mention his many Netflix series, including "The Haunting of Hill House" and "The Fall of the House of Usher." His latest film, "The Life of Chuck," may therefore seem like a bit of a departure. It doesn't explicitly aim to scare viewers in the ways that they might expect from a Flanagan production. But as the filmmaker himself would explain, it's a logical continuation of the kinds of stories he likes to explore. Namely, it concerns itself with big thematic topics, like the impact of one person on others and the peculiarities of living a finite existence. It's a moving, expansive film that has the capacity to horrify, stun, and affect its audience just as much as anything he's made before, even if it has no broken-neck ghosts or bathtub-dwelling ghouls. Mike Flanagan was kind enough to spend some time speaking with us about the details of how the Stephen King story that inspired the film came to him at exactly the right time. He also talks about the differences and similarities of telling stories on TV and film, what it's like to adapt King's work, and how he came to work with his son for the very first time. You can listen to this interview below. Please be sure to check out the film, which is now available to rent and own through NEON and is up for your consideration at this year's Academy Awards in all eligible categories. Check out more on NextBestPicture.com Please subscribe on... Apple Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7IMIzpYehTqeUa1d9EC4jT YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWA7KiotcWmHiYYy6wJqwOw And be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month at https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture and listen to this podcast ad-free Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You are listening to The Next Best Picture podcast, and this is Cody Derrick's interview with the director and writer for The Life of Chuck, Mike Flanagan.
0:09.0	When you look up at the night sky, it can tell you stuff about your future.
0:26.6	It won't lie to you. It's pure that way.
0:29.6	You might see a lot more than you wanted.
0:36.6	But if you have to you might see a lot more than you wanted.
0:44.5	But if you have heart, you have hope.
0:49.4	And you have heart in you.
0:59.9	This is Cody Derrick's with Next Best Picture, and I am beyond thrilled to be talking with one of my favorite working filmmakers, the writer and director of The Life of Chuck, Mike Flanagan.
1:01.1	Mike, how you doing today?
1:02.8	I'm so good, Cody. How are you?
1:04.7	Doing well. Glad to be talking with you.
1:07.1	Oh, likewise. Thank you for your time.
1:07.8	Of course.
1:11.9	So this is obviously far from your first Stephen King adaptation. You've made Gerald's Game. You've made Doctor Sleep, which I just have to tell you while I have you.
1:16.6	I consider one of the greatest films of its decade. What is it about this Stephen King short story
1:23.1	that spoke to you? I first read this in April 2020. so it was only, I think, three weeks into the
1:30.1	lockdown. And it was unlike anything I'd ever read before. Certainly from Stephen King, but maybe
1:37.1	ever. I had a hard time with it, actually, in the first few pages, it hit kind of too close to home.
1:43.5	This story about what seemed to be the end of the world
1:45.7	really kind of hit me in a raw place because we all were feeling that anyway, you know, like
1:51.0	looking out the window. It felt like it was going to be just despair and anxiety. And I kind of
1:57.2	didn't want to keep reading it at the beginning. And so I was shot as the story progressed, and I realized what he was actually doing.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Next Best Picture Podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Next Best Picture Podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.