Ortega, best known for Wednesday and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, says this version of the story is different \u2013 because of Waititi.<\/p>\n
\u201cKlara\u2019s perception of things is so hopeful and optimistic, and it was wonderful for Taika to add his special brand of humour and colour to her. <\/p>\n
\u201cI also think Taika, visually, is very special and I like to work with people who are auteurs \u2013 and headstrong in their way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenna Ortega plays artificial friend Klara, who thrives on sunlight. Photo \/ Matt Grace<\/p>\n
The novel\u2019s themes are deep and dark. But having adapted the Nazi Germany-set novel Caging Skies into Jojo Rabbit<\/a>, the film-maker had a proven track record for straddling the fine line between comedy and drama.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the biggest challenge [for adapting books to film] is that they\u2019re completely different mediums. Books can be more drawn out and take your time,\u201d the 51-year-old says.<\/p>\n \u201cA book takes days and days to read, and so it\u2019s a very different engagement with the audience. With a film you\u2019ve got to do it within an hour and a half to two hours, and you\u2019ve also got to recognise there are times when the audience is bored, and they want things to keep moving.\u201d<\/p>\n Waititi worked with Booker Prize-winner Ishiguro throughout the process of turning the book into a film. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d come up with ideas, and he would say, \u2018Oh, I\u2019d thought about putting something like that in the book, but I\u2019m glad you\u2019ve come up with that for the film\u2019,\u201d Waititi has said.<\/p>\n Klara was shot in New Zealand, with the lush plains of W\u0101naka and its surrounds acting as the isolated setting for Klara\u2019s new home. As the film\u2019s name suggests, the sun was like another character the crew had to capture, and the sun in New Zealand was perfectly cast.<\/p>\n The film\u2019s director of photography Michael Berlucchi says our natural light is \u201charsh, but beautiful. In the wheat fields, it had a consistent kind of golden bounce that comes back at the characters. It\u2019s really something special\u201d.<\/p>\n Ortega says New Zealand \u201cis just one of the most beautiful places I\u2019ve been \u2013 the culture, the colours of the fields, plus the air is fresh and the energy is loose\u201d. <\/p>\n Waititi loves shooting here and says he wants to do it whenever he can, particularly because shooting outside is \u201cbecoming a novelty\u201d with his work lately.<\/p>\n \u201cAll my favourite days on set were out in the fields walking around, because it\u2019s just so beautiful to shoot outside, and it\u2019s kind of weirdly happening less and less the more people use studios and the volumes that they use them. [On location] used to be the only way I would shoot.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019ll be back on home soil to make the most of a Kiwi Christmas. He and wife Rita Ora have a home overlooking Auckland\u2019s Point Chevalier beach.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be there for the whole summer and beyond,\u201d he says with relief in his voice.<\/p>\n It will be a welcome break. His next projects<\/a> involve another book adaptation (this time Percival Everett\u2019s award-winning 2024 novel James), which is set in the US, as well as writing an animated version of Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory (and voicing Willy Wonka), and writing and directing a new Star Wars film.<\/p>\n Audiences know Waititi as someone who enjoys pulling double, sometimes triple, duty \u2013 a writer, director and actor prone to placing himself front and centre in his films. Klara and the Sun almost went the same way, before a moment of personal growth offered itself up.<\/p>\n \u201cI did film some stuff with myself in it, and then I chopped myself out, which was very mature of me as a film-maker because usually, I\u2019d put myself in every scene if I could,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n On the other side of the coin, he had plans for Sir Sam Neill to feature in the film. Plans that never came to fruition.<\/p>\n Waititi smiles at the mention of his close friend and collaborator<\/a>, who died this year, aged 78. <\/p>\n Their film Hunt for the Wilderpeople is considered one of New Zealand\u2019s best and Neill appeared in Waititi\u2019s blockbuster US Marvel epics Thor: Ragnarok and Love and Thunder.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we were shooting [Klara]… there was another character that I ended up not putting in the film. I was talking to him about maybe doing that, but he wasn\u2019t available,\u201d Waititi says, adding they always planned to keep working together.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we all kind of forget how many films he\u2019s done over the years and what he\u2019s in. Sometimes you\u2019ll be watching something, and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh my god, he\u2019s in this.\u2019 So, he\u2019s sort of everywhere still.\u201d<\/p>\n Watching Waititi work is like watching a dad take his kids to the park. He\u2019s to-the-point, organised, but always kind and open to a cheeky laugh here and there.<\/p>\nThe rolling fields of Aotearoa play a big part in Klara and the Sun. Photo \/ Matt Grace<\/p>\n
Taika Waititi directing Klara and the Sun with actor Jenna Ortega. Photo \/ Matt Grace<\/p>\n
Taika Waititi, Sir Sam Neill and Julian Dennison on the set of Hunt for the Wilderpeople.<\/p>\n