Sir Kazuo Ishiguro wants to take complete left turn and write a modern screwball comedy-Louise Griffin-Entertainment – Metro

Sir Kazuo Ishiguro has revealed the kinds of films he would love to work on in future – and he’s all in for writing a screwball comedy.

It’s not a genre that springs to mind when you think of the Never Let Me Go author, who’s also just written the poignant film Living, starring Bill Nighy. But if anyone can do it, it’s him.

‘With novels I have a lot more freedom [than films] because I don’t have to go and ask people if I’m allowed to do it, “will you please pay for it”,’ he laughed, as he chatted to Metro.co.uk alongside Living director Oliver Hermanus.

‘If I was ever to get involved with movies again, there are two genres that would interest me in particular. One is noir, and I think the question of what would a modern noir in England look like? Or a British noir – not just a pastiche.

‘Similarly, I love screwball comedies from the great Hollywood era, 1934 to 1939, those films like Frank Capra and Howard Hawks, and people like that, Mitchell Leisen. It would be interesting to try and do a modern version of that.

‘Screwball comedies aren’t what a lot of people think they are. It’s not the Marx Brothers, it’s a real blend of political, social drama with romantic comedy, and I think it would be really interesting to have a look at those 1930s Hollywood ones and try to do something.’

Sir Kazuo is best known for novels including Never Let Me Go and Klara and the Sun (Picture: David Cooper/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Most recently, Sir Kazuo wrote the screenplay for Living, which follows Bill’s character, a man who receives a medical diagnosis that forces him to cram some fun into his remaining days – aided by a sunny young female colleague, played by Aimee Lou Wood.

It’s adapted from the 1952 film Ikiru, which in turn was inspired by Tolstoy’s 1885 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

Bill Nighy and Aimee Lou Wood star in Living (Picture: Ross Ferguson)

Sir Kazuo explained that he grew up watching Ikiru – but he didn’t feel the pressure of adapting it until the first screenings of Living.

‘Maybe I should have found it daunting, I didn’t actually, because I kind of felt it was part of me. I owned it,’ he admitted.

‘It’s only really since the movie came out, or it was the first showing at Sundance and I started to read the reviews that I started to become hyper-conscious that there’s this famous movie in the background.

‘It’s almost kind of a part of me. I watched the film once before writing the screenplay. And I’d seen it many times over the years, perhaps not for about 30 years. and then I just watched it once more to remind me.

‘But it was like something that had always been part of me. I probably should have been more daunted – maybe it’s very cheeky of me!’

Living is out now.

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