FX has ordered a new one-hour drama series based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s science fiction novel “Never Let Me Go,” FX Entertainment President Gina Balian announced today. The show of the same name will premiere exclusively on Hulu and its main cast is set.
Produced by DNA Productions, in association with FX Productions and Searchlight Television, the thriller stars Viola Prettjeon (“The Witcher”), Tracy Ullman (FX’s “Mrs. America”), Kelly Macdonald (“Boardwalk Empire”), Ayesha Hart (“Line Of The Witcher”). Duty”), Spike Fearon (“The Amazing Mr. Blunden”), Shanika Okwok (“Small X”), Gary Beadle (“Wheel of Time”), Kwami Odum (“Death in Paradise on the BBC”), Susan Brown (” It’s a Sin”), Keira Chance (“Come Away”) and Edward Holcroft (“Kingsman: The Secret Service”).
“Never Let Me Go” follows Thora (Pratejohn), a rebellious teenage clone who escapes from a boarding school where she and her fellow clones are kept hidden from society. As she begins to live in secret in the outside world, she is unwittingly involved in events in motion that will spark a revolution and test the limits of what it means to be human.
Melissa Iqbal (“The Nevers”) wrote the pilot and will serve as showrunner. She executive produces with Maria Fleischer (Under DNA), Ishiguro and Alex Garland, who wrote the screenplay for the 2010 film adaptation, as well as DNA’s Andrew Macdonald and Alan Reich, who produced the film. Behind the feature was Searchlight, which was helmed by Mark Romanek and starred Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley. Mark Munden also executive produced and directed the pilot. Kharmel Cochran (“The Lighthouse,” “The End of the F***ing World”) served as casting director.
“Never Let Me Go is a modern science fiction classic that has been brilliantly adapted for FX by Melissa Iqbal and the creative team as a drama exploring timely and disturbing themes on the ethics of life and technology,” Balian said. “We are honored to partner with Andrew and Alan from DNA Productions, Searchlight Television, Alex Garland, Mark Munden, Kazuo Ishiguro and the incredible cast on this exciting new project.”
Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go” was published in 2005 to critical acclaim and was nominated for the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clark Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was named the best novel of 2005 by Time Magazine.
