Summary
- Mike Flanagan's work now focuses on hope, forgiveness, and empathy after a career shift.
- The director's outlook changed after getting married and having children.
- Flanagan's film, The Life of Chuck, will have a hopeful tone despite its dark concept.
Director Flanagan has been a notable horror director for several years now, with some of his work including The Haunting of Hill House, Oculus, Hush, Before I Wake, and Doctor Sleep. After creating the successful series The Fall of the House of Usher last year, Flanagan's next major project is directing The Life of Chuck. The film is an adaptation of a Stephen King novella and features a leading cast including Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gillan, David Dastmalchian, and Jacob Tremblay.
Speaking with Katee Sackhoff on the Sackhoff Show podcast, Flanagan explains an important pivot in his work in recent years. Flanagan explained that in his early career, a lot of his work "had really bleak endings," but then "pivots right after that."
Sackhoff asks whether Flanagan could chalk that up to his marriage with his wife, actor Kate Siegel, to which he responded that it was a combination of her perspective and becoming a father changed the way the director approached storytelling. His work now aims to create "hope and forgiveness and empathy at the end," as Flanagan details below:
Flanagan: A lot the stuff that I was writing had really bleak endings. And really hopeless endings. It pivots right after that, and everything I've done since then hasn't had that.
Sackhoff : Is that because of Kate?
Flanagan: I think in a lot of ways it is, and it's because of family. When Kate and I got together, my outlook changed a lot. And as we had kids of our own, and the kids started growing up, it started to become more important for me. Someday they're going to interrogate our work, right, like someday we're going to be gone, and if they want to revisit us in an interesting way, they have all this work they can look at. And I never wanted them to come revisit those things and be left on a note of hopelessness. And, so, it's become incredibly important to me that no matter how dark a story gets, there's always hope and forgiveness and empathy at the end.
What Does This Mean for The Life of Chuck?
Flanagan's Approach To Endings Has Been Clear In Recent Years
Given the genre in which Flanagan works, it is fascinating to hear the director talk in this way about his film endings. Flanagan works in the horror genre, so much of his work deals with gruesome images and horrific psychological terror. Even so, tracing back his career, it is evident that more recent work is more forgiving towards its protagonists than early Flanagan, such as Absentia and Oculus.
It's interesting to hear Flanagan's analysis ahead of his next film, The Life of Chuck. Overall, it is not a light story, as it begins with Charles Krantz dying at age 39. But, Flanagan's quote suggests that the director will take an optimistic perspective. While The Life of Chuck is not a horror movie, it does deal with dark themes. Some of that will be offset in a key scene that will likely come toward the middle of the movie involving Chuck (Hiddelston) dancing joyously in the street.
Flanagan's career pivot helps explain why the director is taking on a project like The Life of Chuck in the first place. Flanagan is known for adapting King's work with Doctor Sleep, Gerald's Game, and the Dark Tower. Both King adaptations he has helmed have ended on a hopeful note. In the context of his recent interview, this aligns with the director's ongoing career goals. This trend will make The Life of Chuck fascinating tonally and potentially lay a backdrop for additional interesting project choices by Flanagan in the coming years.
Source: Sackhoff Show Podcast/Instagram
