Kazuo Ishiguro has admitted he had reservations about selling the film rights to his latest book The Buried Giant.

The author has seen his novels The Remains Of The Day and Never Let Me Go adapted for the big screen, but explained that he still felt anxious about handing over the reigns to another new project.

Eventually, he sold the rights to the tale of mythical post-Arthurian Britain populated by ogres, pixies and knights to The Grand Budapest Hotel producer Scott Rudin.

Scott Rudin
Scott Rudin has acquired the film rights to The Buried Giant (Matt Sayles/AP)

Kazuo said: “The danger is that if people are being lazy about it, they can stick it into a ready-made genre, as people have been doing with the [book] review, saying it’s a bit like Game Of Thrones. It’s not that kind of story. There’s not enough battles.

“But Scott Rudin is a very shrewd producer, so if anyone can figure out a way to do this, it’ll be him.”

The author added that he definitely had not taken inspiration from the TV series Game Of Thrones which was adapted from a series of novels by George RR Martin.

Game Of Thrones
Game Of Thrones was not the inspiration for the new Kazuo Ishiguro book (HBO)

He said: “I’ve never actually watched a single episode – I’m meaning to now because I can’t open a review without someone making a comparison.

“I feel like I’ve stepped into an ongoing debate about the role of fantasy tropes in literature – some think we don’t want all this in serious literature and other people say you’ve got to open the parameters, because literary fiction is being stifled otherwise.”

The Buried Giant is published in hardback by Faber & Faber, priced £20. Available now.