We’re going off topic with this post, but for a good reason: because your humble editor just watched a movie trailer that caused a few thousand micro-strokes, leading to one big fuckin’ head explosion.
Cloud Atlas is the name of a novel by David Mitchell that was published in 2004 to considerable critical acclaim. It seemed like it would be a fascinating read, so I bought the book. I’m pretty sure it’s lying around here somewhere, probably underneath some animal pelts or unread magazines from 2005. Anyway, I didn’t read the book and forgot all about it, until today.
And today a friend sent me a link to the trailer for a movie that has been made from the Cloud Atlas novel. It stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy, Zhou Xun, Keith David, David Gyasi, and Susan Sarandon. It was co-written for the screen and co-directed by the people who made the The Matrix trilogy (Andy and Lana Wachowski) and Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer).
Trying to describe the plot is difficult, but from what I’ve read, it involves interlinked stories spanning centuries (and extending into the future) about six characters, including a voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer struggling in Belgium between the wars; a journalist in 1970s California; a vanity publisher fleeing gangland creditors; a genetically modified “dinery server” on death-row; and a young Pacific Islander witnessing the downfall of science and civilization.
I have no idea how these stories connect, though some time travel seems to be involved. Maybe it will turn out to be a confusing mess — some people who’ve read the book are fearful about that. But I can tell you that based on this long trailer, the movie LOOKS fucking awesome.
Here’s an embeddable version of the trailer that I found, but you can also see it without the subtitles and in a version that can be expanded to wide-screen at this location. Feast yo’ eyes — and don’t stop until the end (thing don’t start to get really interesting until about the 2-minute mark):
12 Responses to ““CLOUD ATLAS”: THE MOVIE”
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I really enjoyed the book.
I’m inspired to try to find what the hell I did with it, though now I’m facing the old quandary of whether it’s better to see the movie first or read the book first, since one will spoil the other.
“a young Pacific Islander witnessing the downfall of science and civilization.” epic!!!!! the trailer looks awesome!!!
Reminds me The Fountain, but I hope it will be better…
Judging from the trailer I’m gonna go ahead and guess the movie is going to loose a LOT in translation. That being said I’m still gonna find the book and eventually watch the movie.
Also whoever played Smith has totally ruined himself in any movie ever. Every time I hear his voice I can only hear, “Mr.Anderrrrrson”.
That would be Hugo Weaving, and yes, he burned himself forever. But it just means that he will always be fucking cool no matter what role he’s filling in a movie, because it will really always be Agent Smith in disguise.
I dunno, he’s very much become V (man of Vendettas) to me instead.
I suppose that’s because that performance really is ALL about the voice.
I think that is now port of Hugo Weaving’s charm, now every time I watch LOTR the only thing I hear is “welcome to Rivendell … Mr Andersson “
I’m getting feeble-minded. I totally forgot he was in LOTR. Looks like he will be in the Hobbit movies, too. But did you know that he is the voice of Megatron in the Transformers movies?
(stupid question, because I figure the odds are high that you will tell me you haven’t seen them)
Unfortunately the original Megatron’s voice had degraded with age, so he wasn’t able to reprise his role. Which is a shame.
Shenanagins! IMDB lists Peter Cullen.
(Yeah I totally checked that…)
Double Shenanagins!
I also can’t read. Retracting my previous statement.