For those who have read the book, or who just want to catch a glimpse of what the film looks like, we have an exclusive clip for you below, part of our ongoing Fall Preview week.

Source

Mark Romanek’s take on Kazuo Ishiguro’s acclaimed novel, adaptated by Alex Garland, is the curtain-raiser at this year’s London Film Festival and promises to be one of the LFF highlights. Judging by the trailer, it’s safe to expect one of the year’s most poignant and cerebral sci-fis, exploring the big stuff: love, death and what it means to be human.

The posters feature Kathy (Mulligan), Ruth (Knightley) and Tommy (Garfield), pupils at the mysterious Hailsham boarding school who are being prepared for a shocking fate (and it’s not summer school with George Lineker). LFF ticket holders can catch Never Let Me Go on October 13, while the rest of us will have to wait until January 14.

Source

THR reports the news, and summarizes the film like so: Gosling is “a nameless Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a freelance getaway driver during robberies. When a bank heist goes wrong, he ends up on the run with a contract on his head and an ex-con’s girlfriend (Mulligan) in his car.”

The Hossein Amini script (he wrote Killshot, and one draft of the new Jack Ryan movie) is from the novel by James Sallis. I still haven’t got around to reading the novel, but at this point I can let it wait; I’m much more curious to see what Refn is going to put on screen.

This will be the director’s biggest movie to date, and his first production to be so directly affiliated with an American studio. (Universal is distributing.) That’s another reason to keep a close eye on the film. As Refn’s profile has steadily increased over the past few years, it was inevitable that he’d work with a studio, and this movie feels very much like it could be a ‘getting his feet wet’ sort of project. Wonder Woman probably won’t be next, but given that Refn has a number of non-mainstream projects he’s talked about doing next, I’m interested to see whether he stays more on the path of making smaller, stranger movies, or if he dives into the ‘one for them, one for me’ system.

Here’s more about the book:

“I drive. That’s what I do. All I do.” So declares the enigmatic Driver in this masterfully convoluted neo-noir, which ranges from the dive bars and flyblown motels of Los Angeles to seedy strip malls dotting the Arizona desert. A stunt driver for movies, Driver finds more excitement as a wheelman during robberies, but when a heist goes sour, a contract is put on his head and his survival skills burn up the pavement.

In Drive, [Sallis] combines murder, treachery, and payback in a sinister plot resembling 1940s pulp fiction and film noir. Told through a complex, cinematic narrative that weaves back and forth through time and place, the story explores Driver’s near-existential moral foundations while revisiting its root cause: his hardscrabble, troubled childhood.

Source

The drama, directed by Mark Romanek, tells the tale of former boarding school pupils who confront their sheltered pasts.

It co-stars new Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield and is based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.

The full festival programme will be announced on 8 September.

Never Let Me Go was adapted for the screen by Alex Garland – previously known for his novels The Beach and The Tesseract, and his screenplays for Danny Boyle’s films Sunshine and 28 Days Later.

Its main characters Kathy (Mulligan), Tommy (Garfield) and Ruth (Knightley) spend their childhood at Hailsham, a seemingly idyllic English boarding school, where they discover a dark secret about their future.

The stars of the film are expected to attend the opening night screening, which will be the film’s European premiere.

Sandra Hebron, the festival’s artistic director, said Never Let Me Go combined “impeccable film making, outstanding performances and a deeply moving story”.

Director Mark Romanek added: “I think I can speak for the entire cast and crew when I say that we are deeply honoured and excited to have been selected to open this year’s festival.

“For me personally, it seems the perfect way to celebrate the conclusion of an incredible filmmaking experience in the UK.”

The film will be released in the UK on 14 January, 2011.

The London Film Festival runs from 13-28 October, 2010.

Source

INTERNATIONAL BEST-DRESSED LIST: WOMEN
HOPE ATHERTON, artist
CARLA BRUNI-SARKOZY, First Lady, France
SAMANTHA CAMERON, First Lady, U.K.
NORA EPHRON, writer, director
DIANE KRUGER, actress
H.R.H. CROWN PRINCESS MARY OF DENMARK
CAREY MULLIGAN, actress
WENDI MURDOCH, movie producer
MICHELLE OBAMA, First Lady, U.S.A.
TATIANA SANTO DOMINGO, socialite

Source

Mulligan’s participation in the film rests in the hands of writer Jack Olsen who is polishing the script for the film. The basic story may sound familiar to moviegoers as a surrogate mother becomes obsessed with not only keeping her baby, but the husband of the woman she is carrying the child for. No director is attached to the project yet and no other major roles have been cast. Mulligan’s casting is viewed as crucial as names such as Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, and Adrien Brody have been circulated as possible parents in the film assuming Mulligan joins the cast.

Mulligan earned an Oscar nomination for her role in “An Education” and will appear in two big movies due out still this year, “Wall Street 2? and “Never Let Me Go.”

Source

A showcase for potential Academy Awards contenders, the Toronto festival announced many of the titles Tuesday that will have their world premieres at the event Sept. 9-19.

“Never Let Me Go” casts Knightley and Mulligan as boarding school friends coming to grips with their sheltered past as adults in the real world. A poster has also been released for the upcoming October release.