‘Never Let Me Go’ to open London Film Festival

The Guardian reports that¬†the film version of Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian¬†Never Let Me Go, starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield,¬†has been selected¬†to open the 54th London Film Festival on October 13, 2010.

It will be the second film based on an Ishiguro novel to open the festival after Merchant-Ivory’s The Remains of the Day in 1993. “It is a fantastic privilege, I feel very lucky,” Ishiguro said. “To some extent it is a showcase for British talent and it’s a tremendous honour.” Ishiguro’s 2005 novel was adapted into a screenplay by Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later) even before it was published.

This will be the film’s European premiere (it has a mid-September limited release in the US), and if director Mark Romanek and screenwriter Garland handle the delicate source material with some skill, we might see multiple¬†nominations at BAFTA and possibly the Oscars.¬†Having loved the book, I’m keeping¬†fingers and toes crossed. More from the Booker Prize-winning author:

“I think the film is a great showcase for a new young generation of British actors,” Ishiguro said. “I feel they act in a different way to the old guard that’s hard to put your finger on: it’s less theatrical, there’s a real jagged edge.”