UK shoot begins on Searchlight, DNA, Film4's Never Let Me Go

Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Sally Hawkins, Andrew Garfield, Charlotte Rampling, Nathalie Richard and Andrea Riseborough star. Mark Romanek is directing from Alex Garland’s adaptation of the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Knightley, Mulligan and Garfield play young adults who grew up together at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school and must face up to a haunting truth about their past.

The shoot is scheduled to run for nine weeks in the UK and is being produced by DNA’s Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich. Garland and Ishiguro are executive producers. DNA developed the project.

“We are delighted to be shooting this special project, which Alex Garland first brought to us before the book’s publication in 2005,” Macdonald and Reich said. “We could not be happier to have assembled such a remarkable cast and crew for this extraordinary story.”

“From the moment I finished the novel, it became my dream to film it,” Romanek, who previously directed One Hour Photo, said. “Ishiguro’s conception is so daring, so eerie and beautiful. Alex Garland’s adaptation is sensitive and precise. The cast is perfect, the crew superb.”

“We are thrilled once again to be working with director Mark Romanek and the fantastic producing team at DNA on this haunting, emotionally moving love story,” Fox Searchlight COOs Nancy Utley and Steve Gilula added.

“We’re all so excited at Film4 to be supporting this film - the script, the cast, the director, the crew and the producers at DNA – every element of the project feels absolutely right,” Tessa Ross, head of Film4 & controller of film and drama at Channel 4, said.