Hugo Weaving, the talented British-Australian actor who portrayed Agent Smith in the Wachowski Brothers‘ revolutionary film The Matrix, will once again reunite with the famed directors on their ambitious film entitled Cloud Atlas. The film will be adapted by the Wachowski Brothers and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) from David Mitchell’s novel of the same name. More importantly though, Weaving will play six different characters in the film.
The film will contain six parallel, complex storylines that link together in subtle yet imperative ways. There are no clear details yet regarding directing duties, but I presume that each director will helm at least one storyline a piece.
The six storylines encompass a vast period of time, ranging from the 19th century into a post-apocalyptic future. Weaving recently spoke out about the film, saying the following.
“It’s a project that’s really exciting because all of the actors will be playing more than one role. I actually have six characters in the same film and they are all different people in six different stories.”
With Halle Berry, Tom Hanks, Jim Broadbent, Ben Whishaw and Susan Sarandon also attached to the project, it will be interesting to observe just how versatile these actors can be. I’m also looking forward to witnessing just how the Wachowski/Twyker team will utilize such a stellar cast in the dynamic, overlapping narrative.
Though both the Wachowski Brothers and Tom Twyker have yet to recapture the magic of their debut films, this abstract and discontinuous story seems the perfect forum for them to display their exceptional film-making skills. Fingers crossed that the team keeps an iron grip on the source material, because a story this grandiose could end in disaster in the hands of the less adept.
There is no release date set as of late, so let’s hope they take their time to give this highly anticipated film the treatment it deserves.
