Tim Burton to Direct Original Kazuo Ishiguro Script Set in Postwar Japan
Tim Burton will direct an untitled film written by Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro and set in post-Second World War Japan. The project is still in development, Deadline reported on 15 October 2026.
Burton is attached to direct from Ishiguro's script. Ishiguro is writing an original screenplay for the film, not adapting one of his previous novels or an upcoming book.
No distributor is attached to the untitled film. No cast is attached beyond Burton and Ishiguro themselves. The likely plan is to assemble a package, industry shorthand for attaching cast and other key elements before offering a film to buyers, and then take it to market for a studio or streamer to acquire.
That early stage means there is no release date and no production timetable in public yet. Development, in studio terms, means the script and key attachments are still being put in place before any green light to shoot. For now the project exists as a director, a writer and a setting.
Ishiguro is best known as a novelist, but he has recent screen form. He most recently wrote Living, starring Bill Nighy. He is also connected to another screen adaptation of his own work, Klara and the Sun, which is being directed by Taika Waititi with Jenna Ortega set to star.
That separate adaptation tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend designed to prevent loneliness. Amy Adams is also set to star alongside Ortega, with Ishiguro serving as executive producer, Deadline previously reported.
There is already a Burton-Ortega link on screens. Ortega stars in Wednesday, Burton's Netflix hit, Deadline has noted. Burton is director and executive producer on the series.
What makes this stand out is the freshness of the pages. This is not another adaptation or sequel. It is a new story, written directly for the screen, with its postwar Japan setting the only story detail disclosed so far.
