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When Taika Waititi<\/a> first read Kazuo Ishiguro\u2019s 2021 novel, Klara and the Sun,<\/em> after picking it up at an airport, he thought he had a clear vision of how he could easily adapt it into a movie. The premise seems simple enough: In a not-too-distant future, a mother buys a solar-powered robot to be her daughter\u2019s friend. \u201cI thought that this would be maybe the easiest film I\u2019d ever make, because when I first read the book, I was like, I can make this film. It\u2019s going to be easy\u2014nothing happens,\u201d Waititi tells Vanity Fair.<\/em><\/p>\n With his signature deadpan humor, Waititi is referencing the book\u2019s beautifully meditative quality. Told from the perspective of an android, Ishiguro\u2019s novel explores loneliness, love, humanity, and spirituality\u2014which, as Waititi soon discovered, made the adaptation endeavor much more challenging than expected. In the end, he says, it was one of the hardest things to adapt. \u201cThe more you read the book and the more you\u2019re trying to delve into the relationships, the more you unlock and the more complicated it gets,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Waititi and cowriter Dahvi Waller were able to weave together an uplifting, warm story starring Jenna Ortega<\/a> as Klara, the Artificial Friend who is adopted by a woman (Amy Adams<\/a>) as a companion for her daughter Josie (Mia Tharia). Klara soon becomes focused on getting the sun to help the struggling family.<\/p>\n When the Columbia Pictures project hits theaters on October 23, audiences will get to see a different side of Waititi as a filmmaker and Ortega as an actor. For Waititi, the film has lots of comedic parts while retaining the pensive beauty of the original text. \u201cThis one probably may even be my most dramatic film,\u201d Waititi says. \u201cAt first, when I was writing, I was like, \u2018Make this a Taika film and full of dumb fucking robot humor.\u2019 And that didn\u2019t really work when I was writing it. It took away from the book, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Why am I adapting this really amazing book and then trying to break away from it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cKlara and I are different in most ways, but I have a lot of admiration for the way she loves and looks after her people,\u201d Ortega (with Tharia) says. \u201cBut we are both incredibly stubborn as well\u2014that\u2019s a strong tether.\u201d<\/p>\n