CLOUD ATLAS Extended First Look Trailer & Director Commentary

CLOUD ATLAS starring Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Halle Berry, and Hugo Weaving required a nearly 6-minute trailer to explain the complicated story directed by three filmmakers. Watch the Wachowski (The Matrix trilogy) directing duo and Run Lola Run director Tom Tykwer explain why the first look trailer required a lengthy introduction to the new sci-fi film about reincarnation.

Andy and Lana Wachowski teamed up with a third director for the adaptation of the 1994 novel "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell. In the director commentary video, the trio state nobody wanted to finance or distribute the movie because of it's complicated nature. CLOUD ATLAS explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future. Action, mystery and romance weave dramatically through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future.

The October 26 release stars Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving (The Matrix trilogy, Lord of the Rings trilogy), Hugh Grant, Jim Sturgess (21), Jim Broadbent, James D'Arcy, and former MTV China host Zhu Zhu.  The trailer introduces many characters in six separate stories spanning through the ages with the unifying theme that every soul is reincarnated and deja vu is real.

 

After watching the nearly 6-minute trailer, can you follow the story.  Post your comments below.