By David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas doesn’t easily lend itself to a screen adaptation, but based on the almost six-minute trailer for the film, it looks like The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer are giving it their all. Six interconnected/nested narratives taking place at different points in time; this is a movie I’ve been anticipating for a while given the amount of ambition involved and how easy it would be to fail. Richard Ford once likened short story writing to plate spinning or a high-wire act; maybe a similar analogy can be applied to adapting texts that seem unadaptable.
But in addition to juggling the narratives from Mitchell’s novel, the film will also juggle multiple roles played by the same actor. And so you have Halle Berry in the distant future looking almost elven, the not-too-distant past looking mostly herself, and the distant past in white face. Same goes for a few actors in Asian make-up, obviously channeling their inner Peter Sellers (or, really, their inner futuristic Korean person). And then there’s Hugh Grant who’s all blood and facial tattoos, ready to crush his enemies, see them driven before him, and hear the lamentation of the women.
You can give all 24 character images a look in the gallery. I’ve included the movie poster for Cloud Atlas at the end. Cloud Atlas arrives in theaters on October 26th.
[Via Collider]