CLOUD ATLAS - 4 New Photos and Screening Reactions

Four new photos have been released for Andy and Lana Wachowski (the Matrix trilogy) and Tom Tykwer's (Run Lola Run) incredible looking film Cloud Atlas. The studio has also been holding some test screenings for the film, and some of the people who have seen it are taking their thoughts to the internet. For the most part, the movie has been getting a lot of positive buzz. Yeah, there people that didn't like it, but that's to be expected from such a big movie event like this. 

Here's a collection of thoughts from around the internet that were gathered together by our friends at Joblo:

"It's wild and ambitious and very funny (Broadbent is amazing), and for a movie that switches genre every few minutes, it's smooth, swift, and always entertaining... It's a wild ride. Mixes different genres together like some crazy magic potion." 

@BHirschberger I was lucky enough to view a test screening of Cloud Atlas in Pasadena a little while back. Everyone NEEDS to go see this movie.

Saw #cloudatlas tonight @mickeybeans One of the best, most unique films I've seen in years! The audience loved it! @mrjimsturgess is superb.

@ArcaneMovieTees Saw #cloudatlas last night. Was really good. Great storytelling and some fantastic acting!

@Jon_young Just seen test screening of Cloud Atlas - not the final version but looks like they’ve done a surprisingly good job of adapting it.

I have to say that this film totally blew me away! Leave it to the very creative and innovative Wachowski's and Tom Tykwer to make this complex book into a GREAT film.. .According to my watch, the film ran 2hrs. 50min. but you would never know it because time just flew by. Cloud Atlas has it all... action, adventure, romance, humor, and several very touching moments. It captures every emotion imaginable and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. I can honestly say it's one of the best films I've seen in years and definitely like nothing I've ever seen before! And the rest of the audience also seemed to love the film... there was long and loud applause after the film and lots of positive chatter going on around me. I can't wait for each and every one of you to see it!!!

Saw cloud atlas last night at their first test screening. I sat directly behind the wachowskis and even managed to strike up a conversation. Very cool people. The movie was over 3 hours and it did tend to drag a little. there were 5 different stories going at once so it was a little confusing for the first hour. The editing needs to be reworked., once that is done then that movie will be amazing. Tom hanks was good as well as halls berry. Hugo weaving rocked it and hugh grant was actually pretty cool.

I saw an early screening of this a few months back and all I have to say is it was one hot convoluted mess. My favorite part was the lights coming on at the end.

This isn't going to be a major Oscar player, I don't think. It would require near-unanimous critical praise--which it won't get--and massive box office--which seems unlikely. If it's a player, it will probably mostly be for the techs and maybe the elliptically beautiful screenplay. I have a hard time seeing much of anything else. But I don't really care. I'm glad this movie exists, and I hope the studio doesn't f*** it up too much thanks to test screening results. This is a delicate thing, and even the slightest of changes could make it all fall apart. But for a certain type of filmgoer, this is going to be a real treat indeed, and a reminder that American film can still do ambitious as well as anybody else (just so long as it's primarily financed by foreigners).

All I know is the movie looks awesomely epic. I loved the trailer, and I can't wait to see it! The movie comes out on October 26th, and stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant, Ben Whishaw, Keith David, Jim Broadbent, James D'Arcy, and Doona Bae.

What are your thoughts on this movie? Have you had a chance to see it yet? If not, are you excited about it? 

Here's a breakdown of each story told in the novel:

The film consists of six nested stories that take the viewer from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. Each tale is revealed to be a story that is  observed by the main character in the next. All stories but the last are interrupted at some moment, and after the sixth story concludes at the center of the book, the novel "goes back" in time, "closing" each story as the book progresses in terms of pages but regresses in terms of the historical period in which the action takes place. Eventually, readers end where they started, with Adam Ewing in the Pacific Ocean, circa 1850.

The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing

Pacific Ocean, circa 1850. Adam Ewing, an American notary's account of a voyage home from the remote Chatham Islands, east of New Zealand. The next character discovers this story as a diary on his patron's bookshelf.

Letters from Zedelghem

Zedelgem, Belgium, 1931. Robert Frobisher, a penniless young English musician, finds work as an amanuensis to a composer living in Belgium. This story is saved in the form of letters to his friend (and implied lover) Rufus Sixsmith, which the next character discovers after meeting Sixsmith.

Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery.

Buenas Yerbas, California, 1975. Luisa Rey, a journalist, investigates reports of corruption and murder at a nuclear power plant. The next character is sent this story in the mail, in the form of a manuscript for a novel.

The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish

United Kingdom, early 21st century. Timothy Cavendish, a vanity press publisher, flees the brothers of his gangster client. He gets confined against his will in a nursing home from which he cannot escape. The next character watches a movie dramatisation of this story.

An Orison of Sonmi~451

Nea So Copros (Korea), dystopian near future. Sonmi~451, a genetically-engineered fabricant (clone) server at Papa Song's diner (a proxy for large fast-dining chains), is interviewed before her execution after she rebels against the capitalist totalitarian society that created and exploited her kind. The next character watches Sonmi's story projected holographically in an "orison," a futuristic recording device.

Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After

Hawaii, post-apocalyptic distant future. Zachry, a tribesman living a primitive life after most of humanity dies during "the Fall," is visited by Meronym, a member of the last remnants of technologically-advanced civilization. This story is told when the protagonist is an old man, to seemingly random strangers around a camp-fire.