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FIRST TRAILER: Cloud Atlas Sees David Mitchell's Time-Travelling Epic Come To The Big Screen

FIRST TRAILER: Cloud Atlas Sees Tom Hanks, Halle Berry In Action
HuffPost Staff
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Tom Hanks and Halle Berry have opened the pages on one of the year's most eagerly-anticipated film offerings - the big screen adaptation of Cloud Atlas.

David Mitchell's bestselling time-travelling novel is one of those titles deemed unfilmable but, judging by the trailer ABOVE, Andy and Lana Wachowski of Matrix trilogy fame appear to have confounded doubters.

Soon the proof will be in the eating, when the film hits cinemas in October.

It's the Wachowskis' first film since Speed Racer and, as well as Hanks and Berry, the cast includes Hugh Grant, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent and Hugo Weaving, with all of the actors taking multiple parts - to emphasise the narrative them of everything affecting everything else.

Six separate stories jump around historically and geographically as, according to the blurb, "one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution".

2012 Book Adaptations To Watch
10. "Great Expectations"(01 of08)
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Another year, another "Great Expectations" adaptation, this time with Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch, Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham, and Jeremy Irvine (the emoting boy in War Horse) as Pip. This version is directed by Mike Newell, owner of the weirdest filmography ever: "Harry Potter 4," "Mona Lisa Smile," "Donnie Brasco," "Prince of Persia," and "Four Weddings and a Funeral." We're not sure how necessary this is, and there are no indications that there will be anything new and different done with Dickens, and that's why it's likely it'll probably be a perfectly competent adaptation and not much more. Still, Dickens done average is better than most anything done well.
9. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"(02 of08)
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Stephen Chbosky's beloved book about a teenage outsider dealing with love and his best friend's suicide finally comes to the screen. What's most interesting is Chbosky is directing the film, and has adapted the screenplay. Whether it catches on with the teenage crowd will make or break the film. Look for Wallflower to hit around the end of the year.
8. Anna Karenina(03 of08)
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The 13th film adaptation of Tolstoy's epic love story features Keira Knightley as Anna and Jude Law as her husband Alexei, with Aaron Johnson as Vronsky, her young lover. Joe Wright, director of "Atonement" and "Pride & Prejudice," teams up with Tom Stoppard, who's probably best known for his screenplay for "Shakespeare in Love." Look for this prestige picture to hit in awards season and to collect a bunch of nominations.
7. "Wettest County"(04 of08)
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Boy oh boy, look at those names. Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska. Directing: John Hillcoat, responsible for "The Proposition," one of the best westerns since Leone was around. The story, based on Matt Bondurant's novel, is about the Bondurant boys (Hardy and Shia LaBeouf), two bootleggers who chase the American dream in Prohibition-era Virginia. It's like Boardwalk Empire without the disappointment. Release was originally scheduled for December of last year, but the Weinstein Co. pushed it all the way to this August to capitalize on all the attention Hardy will get as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.
5. "Cosmopolis"(05 of08)
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Here's a confession: I've never seen Robert Pattinson act. I hear he's the worst. But here's something else: "Cosmopolis" is being directed by David Cronenberg, a person whom I've already asked to be my valentine. And if David wants to cast this, then I'm okay with it, because, by my count, he's made a half dozen great movies, including three masterpieces ("A History of Violence," "Eastern Promises," "Dead Ringers"). "Cosmopolis" is Don DeLillo's one-day book centered around the peak of corporate dependency and market optimism just before it crashed. The book takes place in young billionaire Eric Packer's stretch limousine as he heads to the barbershop across the city. Count us in.
4. "The Great Gatsby"(06 of08)
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One of the wild cards on the list because it has a lower floor than most others here. The risk/reward seems fairly high, as it does with most Baz Luhrmann pictures. Questions abound. Why is Baz insisting on the movie being 3D? Why is Tobey Maguire playing Nick? But on the other hand, DiCaprio as Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy, and Joel Edgerton as Tom all get vigorous thumbs-ups. The verdict on the film will come down to whether it slides into camp melodrama (~1:10 odds on that happening), and how successful this over-the-top tone is, whether it's more like Moulin Rouge! (good) or Australia (bad). And either way, I think we'd all prefer a not-so-successful, over-the-top "Gatsby" versus the sterile Redford "Gatsby."
2. "Cloud Atlas"(07 of08)
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David Mitchell's big book about how our actions have consequences for others throughout history has three directors: The Matrix's Wachowski brothers are sharing the same chair with Tom Tykwer, who is best known for "Run Lola Run" (and the criminally underappreciated "Perfume"). The cast: Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant, and Jim Sturgess (who is really good at getting people to try to figure out what his appeal is). Estimated budget: $100 million. With the pedigree involved, and with concept art that looks like the above, it's hard not to get excited; let's hope it doesn't slide into sentimentality, as these "multiple story movies" are known to do, trading cheap heartstring yanks in order to shoehorn surface emotion into an overcrowded ensemble picture.
1. "Life of Pi"(08 of08)
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Yann Martel's massive sensation "Life of Pi" comes to theaters, and it has us excited because of the risk Fox Filmed is taking: they're making it in 3D. There will be around 35 3D Hollywood movies released in 2012, the vast majority of them superhero or genre films. "Life of Pi" is a boy and a tiger in a boat. That's about it. And what's so enticing about Pi's 3D is that Ang Lee, a stickler for visuals, is directing. And unlike Luhrmann, we trust Lee to do smart things with the 3D. We're interested to see what he can do with so little (relatively), and the challenge of adapting a pretty difficult to adapt book is more than enough to get us in the theater.
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