Film pre-empt for new Ishiguro novel

Film company 3000 Pictures has closed a pre-emptive deal for Kazuo Ishiguro's upcoming novel, Klara and the Sun, due to be published by Faber in spring next year. 

Deadline reported that 3000 Pictures founder Elizabeth Gabler made the deal, in a joint venture with partners Sony Pictures and HarperCollins US. David Heyman will produce the film through his production banner, Heyday Films.

The pre-empt was brought in by Jeffrey Clifford and Rosie Alison, alongside Sony's head of Literary in New York, Drew Reed. Ron Bernstein acquired the rights for film from Amanda Urban at ICM Partners, who represents Ishiguro in the US. His agent in the UK is Peter Straus at RCW. 

The author won the 2017 Nobel Prize in literature and a Booker Prize for The Remains of the Day (Faber), is an executive producer on the film. Klara and the Sun will be his first novel since 2017. 

A synopsis from the publisher reads: "The novel tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans."

The novel will be published in March 2021 by Faber in the UK, and Alfred A Knopf in the US. A date for the film release has yet to be confirmed.