“In ‘The Life of Chuck,’ we understand that this guy’s life is cut short, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t experience joy,” says King.

Contemporary anxieties Dark stuff, as King says, hasn’t been hard to come by lately. The kind of climate change disaster found in “The Life of Chuck,” King says, often dominates his anxieties.

Stephen King, left, and Mike Flanagan at the premiere of “The Life of Chuck” during the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 6, 2024. AP, Sept. 6, 2024 ...

King, a self-acknowledged dancer (though only in private, he notes), latched onto a story that would turn on the unpredictable nature of people, tracing the inner life of that imagined passerby.

King, himself, just finished a draft of “Talisman 3.” If “The Life of Chuck” has particular meaning to King, it could be because it represents something intrinsic about his own life.

There is dancing, Walt Whitman and joy. “In ‘The Life of Chuck,’ we understand that this guy’s life is cut short, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t experience joy,” says King.

FILE - Stephen King, left, and Mike Flanagan appear at the premiere of "The Life of Chuck" during the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File) ...

King, himself, just finished a draft of “Talisman 3.” If “The Life of Chuck” has particular meaning to King, it could be because it represents something intrinsic about his own life.