A word of warning to anyone who spies a harassed Keira Knightley lookalike on the streets of London over the next six weeks. It could be her, or it could be a clone.
The Atonement star this week started filming on Never Let Me Go, a tragic romance adapted from the Booker-shortlisted novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. Never Let Me Go plays out in a dystopian parallel Britain where the citizens are cloned in order to supply the trade in donor organs. Knightley takes the role of Kathy H, who is about to embark on her lifetime's service but hears of a possible loophole in the system: clones may be able to avoid donating if they can prove they are in love.
"From the moment I finished the novel it became my dream to film it," director Mark Romanek told Screen Daily. "Ishiguro's conception is so daring, so eerie, so beautiful."
The drama is a co-production between DNA Films, Fox Searchlight and Film4, with a script by Alex Garland, author of The Beach. Knightley's co-stars include Sally Hawkins, Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan, Andrea Riseborough and Charlotte Rampling.
Ishiguro is no stranger to the film industry, having written the scripts for The White Countess and The Saddest Music in the World. In 1993 his award-winning novel, The Remains of the Day, was converted into an Oscar-nominated drama starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.
