Charlotte Rampling and Sally Hawkins join Never Let Me Go

[stepliana]

The film in question is Mark Romanek’s take on Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 masterpiece, “Never Let Me Go.” Both Fox Searchlight and Film4 (a pairing that previously brought us “Slumdog Millionaire”) have a hand in the project, which started principal shooting today in the UK. Anyone familiar with Ishiguro’s novel will see why it’s a potentially snug fit for Romanek, the music video auteur extraordinaire who hasn’t settled on a feature-length vehicle for his gifts since the mixed bag that was 2002’s “One Hour Photo.”

Ishiguro’s supremely elegant science-fiction tale - a romantic dystopian narrative hard to synopsise without entering spoiler territory - should provide the right balance of elegiac emotional texture to complement Romanek’s sometimes distancing visual sheen. With Alex Garland (”The Beach,” “28 Days Later”) handling script duties, the project promises a very exciting merger of three pristine stylists.

Meanwhile, the cast - a veritable showcase of Britain’s brightest rising talent - isn’t too shabby either: Sally Hawkins has just been added to a roster that already includes Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield (so riveting in “Boy A” and “Red Riding”), with Charlotte Rampling adding veteran class.

Even if you don’t know the source material, you have to admit this sounds pretty exciting on paper. Of course, Ishiguro’s opalescent, china-fragile prose (okay, I’m a long-time devotee) provides numerous opportunities to trip up less delicate filmmakers - but as the Merchant-Ivory team proved back in 1993, it can be done, and with less intrinsically cinematic source material to boot. I’m sensing something special in the works here.

Sally Hawkins will be playing Miss Lucy, for sure, and I'm pretty sure Charlotte Rampling will be playing Miss Emily - or maybe Madame?, for those of you who have read the book. And if you haven't, you should.

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