Thursday, the first trailer for the Tom Twyker (“Run Lola Run”) and Lana and Andy Wachovski (“The Matrix”) film adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel “Cloud Atlas” surfaced online. The nearly six-minute trailer was leaked online before Warner Bros. had intended to release it.
“Cloud Atlas” is a series of six narratives layered on top of each other. Each story stops part of the way through and transitions to the next. The protagonist of the following story is the reader or observer of the story that precedes it. Once the reader reaches the sixth story which is presented in its entirety, the novel begins traveling backwards through the layers of stories all the way back to the original story.
In the trailer, Twyker and the Wachovskis present the layers of the novel in multiple facets. There are shots of characters reading the texts of preceding narratives intertwined with the events of the narratives of the novel. The directors have cast the actors in multiple roles to appear as different interconnected characters across the narratives.
The film stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Jim Broadbent, Bae Doona, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, Keith David, James D’Arcy, Ben Whishaw, and Hugh Grant.
“Cloud Atlas” opens in theaters October 26, 2012.
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