Keira Knightley has signed on to star in Mark Romanek’s adaptation of Never Let Me Go, the acclaimed sci-fi novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Knightley - who once went to the same school as Olly Richards, formerly of this parish, and that’s a fact you can take to the bank in these trying times – began her career in this genre, with a bit part in The Phantom Menace, but Never Let Me Go is going to be a far, far cry from a world of laser swords and pony-tailed Jedi.
Knightley will star alongside fellow Brits Carey Mulligan – who made such a big splash at Sundance this year with An Education and The Greatest – and Andrew Garfield in the bleak futuristic romantic thriller.
They will play three friends who grow up together in a boarding school, until they learn that they are clones, bred specifically for organ donation, and with a very finite shelf life.
You might already be making mental comparisons to The Island, but given that Ishiguro’s 2005 novel was nominated for the Booker Prize, you’d be way off. This is not Michael Bay territory – instead, it’s an aching, existential exploration of what it means to be human, of love, loss, and regret.
It’s the first project for Romanek since his auspicious 2002 debut, One Hour Photo. Of course, he had been attached to The Wolfman until he left the production just before filming began last year. But he’s fully attached to Never Let Me Go, with filming set to start in London and Norfolk this April.
We’re excited about this – Romanek’s got a strong, distinctive visual style that has seen potentially premature comparisons to Kubrick, while the cast is strong and the source material excellent.
Alex Garland is adapting the screenplay and producing the movie, along with Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich of DNA Films. Film4 is also involved, while Fox Searchlight is the big daddy studio on board.