The Life of Chuck star Chiwetel Ejiofor teases Mike Flanagan's "mind-blowing, beautiful" Stephen King adaptation

Chiwetel Ejiofor
(Image credit: Getty Images/Theo Wargo/Staff)

Chiwetel Ejiofor can soon be seen in Venom: The Last Dance as the fearsome Rex Strickland, but he's also got a role in Mike Flanagan's upcoming Stephen King adaptation, The Life of Chuck. 

Flanagan has previously teased that he thinks the film might be his best yet, so, when 12DOVE sat down with Ejiofor to talk about Venom 3, we had to ask whether he agreed with Flanagan's assessment on The Life of Chuck. 

"It's a great film. We opened it up in Toronto and it went incredibly well," says Ejiofor. "I hadn't seen it before then, and it was just completely mind-blowing. Beautiful film."

Along with Ejiofor, the movie's impressive cast features Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Karen Gillan, Nick Offerman, Matthew Lillard, David Dastmalchian, Harvey Guillén, and Rahul Kohli.

The film is based on a Stephen King novella of the same name, released in 2020 as part of his If It Bleeds collection. It follows the life story of a man named Chuck, who'll be played by Hiddleston in the movie, but with a twist – the story is told in reverse. Ejiofor plays a school teacher named Marty Anderson. 

As for Venom: The Last Dance, that film is the final installment in the Venom trilogy, and, as well as Ejiofor, the Sony-verse movie stars Tom Hardy, Juno Temple, Stephen Graham, Rhys Ifans, and Peggy Lu. 

Venom: The Last Dance arrives in theaters this October 25, while The Life of Chuck is releasing next year. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the most exciting upcoming major movie release dates to get planning your theater trips.   

Molly Edwards
Senior Entertainment Writer

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English. 

Read more
The Life of Chuck
The first trailer for Mike Flanagan's Stephen King movie gives us a cryptic glimpse at the end of the world, and I'm already crying
John Malkovich in Fantastic Four: First Steps
Fantastic Four star John Malkovich says shooting the Marvel movie was very "odd" because "nothing is really there except giant screens and 18 epic cranes"
Michael B. Jordan as Elijah in the new horror movie, Sinners.
Legendary director Spike Lee says he had "the greatest experience of watching a film in years" with Michael B. Jordan's new vampire horror movie Sinners
Stephen King in It Chapter 2
Stephen King is writing Mike Flanagan's adaptation of The Dark Tower: "To say too much feels like a jinx"
Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk in Daredevil: Born Again
Daredevil: Born Again star Vincent D'Onofrio says Ethan Hawke played a key role in convincing him that the show was in good hands following a failed attempt
Tatiana Maslany as Lois in The Monkey
She-Hulk star Tatiana Maslany says her next horror movie with Osgood Perkins won't be anything like The Monkey or Longlegs: "There's always a little mischief"
Latest in Drama Movies
Matt Damon in The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan is "like an indie filmmaker" with a huge budget says The Odyssey star: "He's not doing it by committee"
Zoe Saldana in Emilia Perez
Netflix CEO breaks silence on the streamer's continuing Best Picture dry streak: "We have to make a movie that people love"
Robert De Niro and Debra Messing in The Alto Knights
Robert De Niro talks embodying his "mythological" gangsters in The Alto Knights, whose real conflict inspired The Godfather
Robert De Niro in The Alto Knights
Robert De Niro talks playing dual roles in his new gangster movie from the co-writer of Goodfellas and Casino – and his surprising personal connection to the film
Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later
28 Years Later release date, trailer, cast, and everything else we know so far about Danny Boyle's zombie horror sequel
Ben Affleck in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
The 32 greatest Ben Affleck movies
Latest in News
Pillars of Eternity
10 years later, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 and Avowed world, Obsidian is giving its own throwback CRPG Pillars of Eternity a turn-based combat mode
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo looking at a giant key which is also a clue
Netflix is rebooting Scooby-Doo as a live-action series from the producer of Supergirl and The Flash centered around a "supernatural murder" at a summer camp
Astro Bot
Astro Bot went through 23 pitch iterations before its director promised PlayStation "happy gameplay" and "overflowing charm," though it did once end with robot decapitation that made "some people really upset"
Tomb Raider
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs
AI Limit
"AI is not as effective as it might appear": Dev of AI-focused Soulslike RPG says they didn't use any AI-generated content and it can't match "genuine creativity"