Taika Waititi‘s next film is not a comedy about vampires or a Marvel sequel. It is an adaptation of a Nobel laureate’s quietest novel, and it arrives in cinemas this week. Klara and the Sun, based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 book, stars Jenna Ortega as a solar-powered Artificial Friend and Amy Adams as the mother of the sick girl she is bought to look after.
Watch the trailer
According to the NZ Film Commission, which lists it as an international production, the film is set for release on 23 October 2026. Sony’s Australian trailer gives Thursday 22 October for cinemas across the Tasman. Here is what to know before you book.
The story
Ishiguro’s novel is narrated by Klara, an Artificial Friend who waits in a shop window, studying the sun and the people who pass. The NZ Film Commission’s synopsis sets up the film the same way: Klara wants to find the perfect home, meets a girl named Josie, and the two quickly become kindred spirits. Josie has a strained relationship with her mother, Chrissie, after the family has suffered a great loss, and Klara’s wonder and loyalty begin to heal them.
Readers will know the book holds back its harder questions, about illness, privilege and what love owes to a machine, until late.
The cast
Ortega plays Klara, Adams plays Chrissie and Mia Tharia plays Josie. Aran Murphy, Steve Buscemi and Natasha Lyonne round out the main cast listed by the Film Commission. Waititi directs from a screenplay he wrote with Dahvi Waller, the Mrs. America creator.
The film comes from Sony’s 3000 Pictures with Heyday Films, the company of Harry Potter producer David Heyman.
The Aotearoa connection
There is a homegrown thread. Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland reported that Year 10 student Sophia Bryant-Taukiri was cast as the bereavement doll version of Sal, Josie’s late sister, a non-speaking role. According to the school’s account, she spent two weeks on set, with filming in a Wānaka wheatfield and at Auckland’s old railway station.
It is also a change of key for Waititi, whose New Zealand films, from Boy to Hunt for the Wilderpeople, mixed grief and jokes in roughly equal measure. The Film Commission files this one under drama first, comedy second.
The trailer
Sony Pictures released the official trailer in June. It is a first look at Ortega’s Klara and at Adams as Chrissie, and it is cut to keep the novel’s later turns hidden. Sony Pictures Releasing Australia posted its own version carrying the local date.
Release dates by market
- United States: 23 October 2026, in cinemas only, according to the NZ Film Commission’s listing of the Sony release
- United Kingdom and Ireland: 23 October 2026, through Sony Pictures Entertainment UK, according to the UK cinema trade listing
- Australia: Thursday 22 October 2026, according to Sony Pictures Releasing Australia
- New Zealand: expected in the same week; check local session times, as Sony had not posted a separate New Zealand date on its pages at time of writing
- Canada: not separately announced; Sony usually opens alongside the US, so check local listings
There is no streaming date. As a Sony film, it will follow Sony’s usual route to rental and then its pay window partners, but none of that has been announced.
Read the book first
Klara and the Sun is a short novel, around 300 pages, published by Faber in the UK and Commonwealth and by Knopf in the US. It is in print in paperback and available as an ebook and audiobook, and it is a common holding in public libraries.
Earlier Ishiguro on screen
Two Ishiguro films are worth a weekend before this one. The Remains of the Day (1993), James Ivory’s film with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, is the stately one: a butler, a country house and everything left unsaid. Never Let Me Go (2010), Mark Romanek’s film with Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley, is the closer cousin to Klara: another story about young people, love and a system nobody questions. Ishiguro also wrote the screenplay for Living (2022), Oliver Hermanus’s film with Bill Nighy, adapted from Kurosawa’s Ikiru.
Where to watch
- Klara and the Sun: in cinemas, Australia from 22 October, US and UK from 23 October, New Zealand the same week (check sessions)
- Never Let Me Go: a Searchlight title; check Disney+ in your market, or rent or buy on digital stores
- The Remains of the Day: rent or buy on digital stores, including Apple TV and Prime Video
- Living: rent or buy on digital stores
Sources
- NZ Film Commission: Klara and the Sun film page (release date, cast, synopsis, production companies)
- Sony Pictures Entertainment: Klara and the Sun official trailer (YouTube)
- Sony Pictures Releasing Australia: Klara and the Sun official trailer, In Cinemas October 22, 2026 (YouTube)
- Independent Schools of New Zealand: Dio student shines in upcoming Taika Waititi film
- DCM: Klara and the Sun UK release listing
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