Taika Waititi has a new science fiction movie arriving in theaters this week, but the sci-fi project fans have been asking about the longest is going back in the freezer. While promoting Klara and the Sun, Waititi told Inverse in an exclusive interview that his Star Wars film has been put on ice, and that he and writer Tony McNamara have shifted to a different project.
"It's very iced. I've got about four other movies I'm trying to do," Waititi said.
Klara And The Sun Comes First
His focus right now is Klara and the Sun, an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's 2021 novel. The Nobel Prize winning author's book follows Klara, an Artificial Friend who wants nothing more than to find the perfect home, and the family she ends up with. Waititi directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Dahvi Waller.
The novel was Ishiguro's first after he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017, and like Never Let Me Go, it uses a science fiction premise to ask very human questions. Ishiguro is also an executive producer on the film.
Jenna Ortega stars as Klara, with Amy Adams, Mia Tharia, Aran Murphy, Steve Buscemi, and Natasha Lyonne rounding out the main cast, and Michael Giacchino composed the score. The film premiered at the BFI London Film Festival last week (October 15th) and opens in theaters in the US and UK on Friday (October 23rd) through Sony Pictures.
It is a quieter, more reflective kind of science fiction than Waititi usually makes, built on Ishiguro's gentle, unsettling look at artificial intelligence, loneliness, and what it means to love someone. Early reviews out of London have been rough, so the film has a lot to prove when general audiences get their first look.
The Star Wars Film Joins The Waiting List
Lucasfilm first announced Waititi's Star Wars movie in 2020, with Waititi directing and co-writing alongside Krysty Wilson-Cairns. McNamara, the writer of The Favourite and Poor Things, later came aboard to handle the script so Waititi could concentrate on directing. That team will now make something else.
"I hate to break this to you, but we're going to actually put it on ice and we're working on a different thing together," Waititi said. He would not say what that new project is. His publicist cut that question off with "If you have to ask, the answer is no," and Waititi admitted, "I don't even know how to dress it up or make it even vague."
He did offer one hopeful line for fans of a galaxy far, far away. "Ice ages do come to an end," he said. "Who knows?"
A Packed Genre Slate
Waititi's "four other movies" line is not an exaggeration. His projects in development include several that sci-fi and fantasy readers will want to keep an eye on:
- An adaptation of The Incal, the classic science fiction graphic novel by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius.
- A Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film based on Roald Dahl's book.
- We're Wolves, the follow-up to What We Do in the Shadows.
- An adaptation of the satirical novel Barn 8.
The Incal in particular is a huge swing. Jodorowsky and Moebius's comic is one of the most influential works of European science fiction, and its strange, sprawling universe has been called unfilmable for decades. If Waititi actually gets it made, it could end up being a bigger deal for genre fans than his Star Wars movie would have been.
Waititi has already spent time in Star Wars, directing the Season 1 finale of The Mandalorian and voicing IG-11, so a return someday is not out of the question.
Would you rather see Taika Waititi finally make his Star Wars movie, or tackle The Incal first?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.