The Nobel Prize-winning writer Kazuo Ishiguro has many skills, and one of them is quietly and beautifully devastating his readers. The multi-hyphenate Taika Waititi also has many skills, and one of them may just be to translate that devastation onto the screen. Waititi is in negotiations to direct and produce the latest Ishiguro adaptation: Klara and the Sun, a story about a robot girl who wants to save the human family she lives with from pain.
Anyone who ever sobbed at the ending of Never Let Me Go—by which I mean me, I absolutely bawled—probably just flinched in anticipation.
The publisher’s summary of Klara and the Sun is downright vague:
Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?
In Tor.com’s review, Em Nordling said, “Klara’s story is uniquely moving, its questions more expansive. Though perhaps not as gracefully rendered as Never Let Me Go, Klara is a stunning book in its own right and a vital addition to today’s proliferating sub-genre of climate change novels.”
Deadline writes, “The project is in development, with Dahvi Waller penning the original draft of the screenplay.” (The currently Hollywood writers’ strike may put a wrench in the timeline.) Ishiguro himself is an executive producer; David Heyman (Gravity, Paddington 2) will produce the film.
Two of Ishiguro’s novels have been previously adapted: The Remains of the Day into a heartbreaking and Oscar-nominated 1993 film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, and Never Let Me Go into both a film (2010) and series (2018).
Waititi has quite a bit on his plate: the second season of Our Flag Means Death (pictured above), which he produces and stars in; directing Hulu’s adaptation of Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown; directing a Time Bandits series for Apple TV+; and transforming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into two series for Netflix. And then there’s the small matter of the Star Wars movie he’s set to direct and co-write. According to Deadline, “insiders say he is still excited about the project and committed to direct that next year.” But Deadline also says that Waititi “likely would make [Klara and the Sun] his next film.”
Who’s taking bets on what we get to see first?
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