It’s been a few years since Taika Waititi delivered his last film – an adaptation of beloved football doc Next Goal Wins. But now, three years later, he’s finally back with Klara And The Sun, taking Kazuo Ishiguro’s acclaimed novel – about a robot girl, Klara, who befriends sick kid Josie in a dystopian future – and bringing it to life with Jenna Ortega in the title role, and Amy Adams, Steve Buscemi and more among its ensemble. Oh, and Rachel House too – this is a Taika Waititi movie.
Except, it looks set to be a different kind of Taika movie, stripping back some of the comedic instincts the Kiwi filmmaker became known for. “To try and make this a silly movie undermined a lot of what Klara is about,” he tells Empire. “This story’s a drama. Once I realised that, it made it a lot easier.” In a key difference to Thor: Love And Thunder, there are, he confirms: “No screaming goats!”
Waititi read the entire novel on a flight in one sitting. “Which never happens!” he says. “I absorbed it really fast. I just found it so beautiful.” And unlike his comic book movies, this one’s not so much packed with incident. “There’s no big twist where robots start murdering everyone. I say this as a compliment: it’s a story where nothing really happens,” he explains. “It all just sort of flows.”
All signs point to a quieter, more human movie than we’ve seen from Waititi in a while. “Humans are quite challenging to love,” he expands. “If you weren’t human and you were introduced to us, you might ask: what is it about these things that are supposedly lovable? Why would you love one of them? How come they keep falling in love with each other? We’re weird and unlikeable. We’re erratic and unreasonable and unpredictable.” Welcome back, Taika.
Read Empire’s full Klara And The Sun story in the Rings Of Power Season 3 issue, on sale Thursday July 30. Pre-order a copy online here. Klara And The Sun comes to UK cinemas from October 23.
