Cloud Atlas (2012)

Cloud Atlas film is a film based on the 2004 novel of the same title written by a British author David Mitchell. It is produce by Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay, directed by Tom Tykwer and Lana wachowski. The film stars Tom Hanks, James McAvoy, Ian McKellen and Halle Berry and is set for release on May 4, 2012.


Casts:
Tom Hanks as Dr. Henry Goose
James McAvoy as Adam Ewing
Ian McKellen as Timothy Cavendish
Halle Berry as Meronym

Director:
Tom Tykwer & Lana Wachowski

Writers:
Tom Tykwer & Andy Wachowski

Producers:
Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg
Plot: (No official plot yet but based on the novel....)

The novel consists of six nested stories that take us from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. Each tale is revealed to be a story that is read (or watched) by the main character in the next. All stories but the last one get interrupted at some moment, and after the sixth story concludes at the center of the book, the novel "goes back" in time, "closing" each story as the book progresses in terms of pages but regresses in terms of the historical period in which the action takes place. Eventually, readers end where they started, with Adam Ewing in the Pacific Ocean, circa 1850.

The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing
Pacific Ocean, circa 1850. Adam Ewing, an American notary's account of a voyage home from the remote Chatham Islands, east of New Zealand. The next character discovers this story as a diary on his patron's bookshelf.

Letters from Zedelghem
Zedelgem, Belgium, 1931. Robert Frobisher, a penniless young English musician, finds work as an amanuensis to a composer living in Belgium. This story is saved in the form of letters to his friend (and implied lover) Rufus Sixsmith, which the next character discovers after meeting Sixsmith.

Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery.
Buenas Yerbas, California, 1975. Luisa Rey, a journalist, investigates reports of corruption and murder at a nuclear power plant. The next character is sent this story in the mail, in the form of a manuscript for a novel.

The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
United Kingdom, early 21st century. Timothy Cavendish, a vanity press publisher, flees the brothers of his gangster client. He gets confined against his will in a nursing home from which he cannot escape. The next character watches a movie dramatisation of this story.

An Orison of Sonmi~451
Nea So Copros (Korea), dystopian near future. Sonmi~451, a genetically-engineered fabricant (clone) server at Papa Song's diner (a stand-in for McDonald's), is interviewed before her execution after she rebels against the capitalist totalitarian society that created and exploited her kind. The next character watches Sonmi's story projected holographically in an "orison," a futuristic recording device.

Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After
Hawaii, post-apocalyptic distant future. Zach'ry, a tribesman living a primitive life after most of humanity dies during "the Fall," is visited by Meronym, a member of the last remnants of technologically-advanced civilization. This story is told when the protagonist is an old man, to seemingly random strangers around a camp-fire.

News & Updates:

• In 2009 it was announced that the Wachowski Brothers had bought the rights to the novel, DreamWorks will produce the film, while Disney will distribute it under its Touchstone Pictures banner. Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg will executively produce the film. Writer/director Tom Tykwer is working on a screenplay.
• Natalie Portman was originally cast as Somni-451, but left the project after becoming pregnant.