With production set to begin in just a few short weeks, it looks like the last few pieces of casting for the ambitious adaptation of “Cloud Atlas” are falling into place as “One Day” star Jim Sturgess is the lastest actor to come aboard. USA Today confirms what we’ve been hearing about Sturgess’ involvement in the picture as they say, he “next ventures to Berlin to film the Wachowski brothers‘ new movie ‘Cloud Atlas.'”
Just a few weeks ago during press for “One Day,” Playlist writer Kimber Myers had the opportunity to ask Sturgess himself about his then-rumored involvement and while he wasn’t quite 100% locked down at the time for the role, he admitted then that he was likely participating in the film and already greatly anticipating working on the project. And his admiration started with the source material, “It’s an amazing book,” he told us enthusiastically. “You really gotta stick with it…because when it all starts falling into place it’s pretty amazing.”
“[All the actors] play a few characters, it’s very clever what [the directors are] gonna try and do. I’m really really really excited about it,” Sturgess continued. “I think it’s going to be bonkers, it’s either going to work or it’s not. I’m really excited to see if we can pull it off, because it’s ambitious what they want to do. And it’s nice, you feel like no one’s ever done that in a film before, it’s like rep theater on a sort of giant movie scale.”
Adapted from the complex novel by David Mitchell, the story follows six plot threads across time—a 19th century notary on a Pacific expedition, a bisexual musician in the 1930s, a female journalist in a thriller in 1970s California, an aging publisher in London in the present, a clone in a futuristic dystopia, and a Pacific survivor in a post-apocalyptic world—all of which fold in on themselves. Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent and Bae Doona are all on board, with The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer (“Run Lola Run“) directing. The latter is expected to take on the period portions of the story, with the former tackling the futuristic material. The filmmakers will shoot in parallel — each with their own crews — in what will be a mammoth exercise in scheduling.
While no release date has been officially set yet, the film is currently eyeing an October 2012 bow.