Early Footage Of 'Never Let Me Go' Makes Spike Jonze Cry

Last week we gave you a first look report from an early test screening of Mark Romanek’s highly anticipated third feature-length, “Never Let Me Go.” Based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling novel, the screenplay was written by Alex Garland (of Danny Boyle fame including, “The Beach,” “28 Days Later” and “Sunshine”) and the cast — Andrew Garfield (“Red Riding” trilogy, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”), Carey Mulligan (“An Education”) and Keira Knightley and Sally Hawkins — is rather stellar.

The picture is a futuristic thriller about a trio who grew up in a boarding school with no contact or knowledge of the outside world, until they discover they are clones grown for the sole purpose of organ donation.

Director Spike Jonze, who is buddies with Mark Romanek, recently saw the film, said he hearts it and even said he cried during some of the footage that he saw.

It seems like this film is amazingly under the radar right now. But when I was in England, our good friend Mark Romanek was filming a movie adapted from the book of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro and I got to visit him on the set and sneak into his edit room on a weekend and see some of it. I don’t know what I can and cant say about it but I love the story. Even just a few scenes he showed me on their own were really moving. The combination of a science fiction film handled very subtly and naturalistically that also made me cry and is beautifully photographed (Adam Kimmel) is a trifecta. Congrats Mark!! We will post more as we can. Here is a shot stolen from the edit room that gives some sense of the look of the film and Mark at lunch on weekend. We had insane Japanese food at a place called Roca on Charlotte street.

We can’t wait to see this. Very highly anticipated for 201o. Fox Searchlight is one of the film’s backers and likely the ones distributing it in the U.S. next year. Other cast members include Charlotte Rampling, Nathalie Richard and Andrea Riseborough.