If you’re unfamiliar with the oddly structured book Cloud Atlas, then the photo above will look like little more than an assemblage of objects and reclusive directors. While I’m excited for the Wachowski’s shared epic with Tom Tykwer that features an excellent cast, I’m definitely among those who simply see a bunch of Hollywood folks (producers, Lana, Andy, and the book’s author) standing in a garage or something. The photo was taken to mark the wrap of principle photography on the film, which stars Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, and Keith David in a world and time-spanning series of 6 self-bookending stories.
Empire was kind enough to provide a nice rundown of what all these items mean in the picture.
If you know the book, you’ll also recognise props from the six interlinking tales. We’ve spotted the VW Beetle of crusading journo Luisa Rey (Berry), the ’70s thriller that should inject serious voltage into the film’s middle act (if you really know the book, you’ll know that it’s actually rust orange not drab green). Also on display are a pair of Chatham Island totems, a piano belonging to the composer of the ‘Letters from Zedelghem’ chapters, some dystopian gadgetry from near-future Korea, and a cart that we’re guessing gets used to carry post-apocalyptic veggies around Hawaii.
The film is set for an October released, and having wrapped I’m sure we can expect a trailer sometime around the beginning of next year. I’m sure there’s plenty of effects to complete, but the studio definitely needs to get buzz started on something like this, which surely won’t be easy to sell.