Cloud Atlas
![Watch film Cloud Atlas — Cloud Atlas - Extended First Look [HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UmJVFOKaGUY/sddefault.jpg)
Short description
Cloud Atlas interweaves six stories set in different places and eras, from the nineteenth century to a distant future, with the same performers appearing across the timelines. A notary travels home by ship across the Pacific, a young composer works on a sextet in Europe, a journalist investigates a nuclear plant, a publisher ends up confined in a care home, a clone in a futuristic city questions her role, and a survivor in a ruined world encounters remnants of advanced technology. The film follows how choices and acts of kindness echo from one life and age to another, shaping later events.
Tom Tykwer wrote and directed alongside Lilly and Lana Wachowski, all three sharing screenplay credit. It followed Tykwer's The International and came between the Wachowskis' Speed Racer and Jupiter Ascending. Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess and Bae Doona each play multiple roles among a credited cast of 54. It is based on David Mitchell's novel.
Made for about 102 million US dollars, the film took roughly 130 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.3/10 from around 386,000 votes; on TMDB it has 6.9/10 from about 7,700 votes. A critics' rating of 6.7/10 across 287 reviews places it slightly below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Halle Berry broke her leg during filming.
- Louise Ray's apartment number is 451, a nod to Sonmi-451. Both characters take enormous risks in their fight against injustice.
- The Wachowskis' first film after 'Bound' (1996) that will not be adapted into a video game.
- All the actors have multiple roles in the film, spanning different times, races, and even genders. This was achieved through prosthetic makeup, elaborate costumes, and strict time constraints for actors to transition between roles. For example, Halle Berry described experiencing filming as a Jewish woman from the 1930s directed by Tom Tykwer one day, then a quick switch to a woman from an ancient tribe directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski the next, and then another transition to a reporter from the 1970s, with all these image changes happening one after another without breaks.
- During filming, the directors asked the actors to perceive their roles as 'genetic mutations,' rather than a series of separate parts where changes in one affect the others.
- A character from 1973 says his flight was canceled due to an air traffic controllers' strike. The only air traffic controllers' strike in US history occurred in 1981.
- In 1973, the same yellow car with a black stripe (presumably a Chevrolet Vega) appears in two different shots.
- In 1849, in San Francisco, the household staff consists of slaves. California was never a slave state.
- At the very beginning of the film, a flyer slipped under a car's windshield wipers lies differently in various shots.
- In the scene where the characters are stuck in an elevator, a man's briefcase is positioned differently in various shots.
- In 1973, during a conversation between Louise Ray and Joe Napier, a calendar hangs on the wall. In it, September begins on a Friday, however, in 1973, September began on a Saturday.
- The film is based on David Mitchell's novel "Cloud Atlas" (2004).
- In 2005, while filming "V for Vendetta" (2006) in London, actress Natalie Portman gave Lana Wachowski a copy of the original novel, and she became very interested in it. A year later, the Wachowskis wrote the first draft of the screenplay. Tom Tykwer, a friend of Lana and Lilly Wachowski, was invited to collaborate on the project, and for the next two years they refined the script, keeping the author's, David Mitchell's, comments in mind, and simultaneously seeking international investors. Throughout these years, Portman was promised the role of "Sonmi-451", but she had to decline at the last moment due to her pregnancy.
- At one point on set, Tom Hanks began referring to Lana and Lilly Wachowski (Andy at the time of filming) as "Mom and Dad" because they worked very well together and were excellent leaders, both for the actors and the crew.
- Tykwer and the Wachowskis filmed the movie in parallel using separate crews. The Wachowskis primarily worked on the scenes from the future and the 19th-century story, while Tom Tykwer directed the plots unfolding in our time, as well as the 30s and 70s.
- James McAvoy and Ian McKellen were considered for roles in the film.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
