Neon Bought a Fantastic Oscar Contender With This Stephen King Adaptation — so Why Are They Burying It This Summer?

One of the biggest surprises of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival was the premiere of The Life of Chuck, an adaptation of the Stephen King novella of the same name, directed by Mike Flanagan. Although it screened at the festival alongside many leading award-season contenders, The Life of Chuck won the highly coveted People’s Choice Award, which has traditionally indicated significant Oscar buzz. The last TIFF People’s Choice Award winner not to receive a Best Picture nomination was 2011’s Where Do We Go Now?, but The Life of Chuck was unique because it did not go into the festival with a distributor. The Life of Chuck was purchased by Neon, a rising independent studio that has come to rival A24 with its credibility among cinephiles, and won Oscar gold with films like Anora and Parasite.