- Title: GERMANY: Cloud Atlas brings star cast to Germany
- Date: 5th November 2012
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (NOVEMBER 5, 2012) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CLOUD-ATLAS-ACTRESS HALLE BERRY, SAYING: "I don't think you have to have read the book to understand the messages of this movie- What I do know is when you see the movie, reading the book will probably be easier, I think I can safely say that." (SOUNDBITE) (English) CLOUD-ATLAS-ACTOR TOM HANKS, SAYING "There is not a worry about it at all, if it was going to be a film that tried to be one thing and one thing only then I would say, guys, you didn't do good. But this is a movie about consciousness, this is a movie about the connectedness between human beings. If you want to put the high theological mumbo jumbo on it, you can, but if you are just looking at it from a pure narrative, it's a very simple movie."
- Embargoed: 20th November 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVAAXX80X3PPYFXRX6CO0HQXM3CK
- Story Text: An all star cast, consisting of Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving amongst others and the three directors of German Sci-Fi-drama "Cloud Atlas" introduced their movie in the German capital Berlin on Monday (November 5).
Co-directed by Tom Tykwer of "Run Lola Run" fame, and the sibling team behind "The Matrix Trilogy," Andy and Lana Wachowski, "Cloud Atlas" is made up of six narratives spanning from the 1840s to the present day to a post-apocalyptic future.
"This is a movie about consciousness, this is a movie about the connectedness between human beings," Tom Hanks told Reuters. "If you want to put the high theological mumbo jumbo on it, you can, but if you are just looking at it from a pure narrative, it's a very simple movie," the actor added. Not all critics have been of the same opinion, some calling "Cloud Atlas" bloated and self-indulgent, doubting if movie goers would get the message.
The century-hopping film tells several interwoven stories of love, hope and rebellion across many eras. "Cloud Atlas" explores how actions have consequences in the past, present and future. Hanks and Berry play multiple roles in the film's complex storylines and ambitious plot structure. Hanks is a shady doctor in the 1840s, a nuclear scientist in the 1970s and then a simple valley-dweller in the distant future.
While the philosophical book by Britain's David Mitchell tells six separate but linked stories in chronological order, moving from the past to future and then back again, the film adaptation (with a reported budget topping $100 million) intercuts the stories to drive home the link between the threads. "I don't think you have to have read the book to understand the messages of this movie- What I do know is when you see the movie, reading the book will probably be easier, I think I can safely say that," said Halle Berry.
Lana Wachowski said she was drawn to the material because it incorporated all aspects of her life: "It explicitly joined both a philosophical investigation of meaning with this joyful complete abandonment towards the fun of genre story telling. And if you look at all our movies and add them all up in a way they kind of become Cloud Atlas, like Cloud Atlas is a sum of all of us, our lives and our work," said Wachowski, adding: "I love the fact that Cloud Atlas will forever be this kind of castle that we built together and it will stand there and it will always remind me of the moment that this beautiful man (director Tom Tykwer) came into our lives and changed our lives."
"Cloud Atlas" hits German theatres on November 15. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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