Finally, a Mike Flanagan film that won’t scare you half to death. We think.

Flanagan, known for his macabre, suspenseful Netflix miniseries The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and Midnight Mass, adapted his new film The Life of Chuck from a Stephen King novella, and we can still say it’s not a horror. (It’s been likened to Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption, also adapted from King’s shorter works.)

Neon made a play for the movie after it won the Toronto International Film Festival’s prestigious people’s choice award. Films that win that prize have historically fared very well in the Academy Awards. The film should be released to theaters in 2025.

The Life of Chuck is billed as a “life-affirming” story about an ordinary man named Charles Krantz. The film is split into three distinct chapters that unfurl in reverse chronological order, set against the backdrop of a world that appears to be slowly crumbling.

Flanagan wrote the script for The Life of Chuck from a Stephen King novella, and the stacked cast includes Tom Hiddleston in the title role, along with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Kate Siegal, Mia Sara, Jacob Tremblay, Carl Lumbly, Molly C. Quinn, Matthew Lillard, David Dastmalchian, Lauren LaVera, Michael Trucco, Rahul Kohli, and Mark Hamill.

This is not the first time Flanagan has tried his hand at filming works by the master of horror. He previously directed Doctor Sleep, based on King’s sequel to one of his most famous books, The Shining. Flanagan also adapted and directed an adaptation the King novel Gerald’s Game. The Life Of Chuck novella is included in King’s 2020 four-story collection If It Bleeds which is made up of four previously unpublished novellas.