It’s been more than a year since anyone has heard much from Run Lola Run/The International director Tom Tykwer, who was last known to be throwing himself into an adaptation of David Mitchell’s sprawling, acclaimed novel **Cloud Atlas. But while even he admitted it was something of a challenge, it appears he’s had some success cracking it, since offers are now apparently going out to the likes of Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and James McAvoy for the main roles.
Production Weekly (via the eagle-eyed charlatans at The Playlist) got a hint that Tykwer is apparently planning a spring 2011 shoot for the film and that he’s now putting out feelers to lock in what could be an extremely starry and solid cast.
No deals have of course been done yet, but in addition to Hanks, Berry and McAvoy, Tykwer is after Ian McKellen and Natalie Portman, who has been linked to the project in the past, most likely because of her V For Vendetta connection to Atlas producers the Wachowskis.
Atlas’ stirring prose is matched by its complicated structure – it takes place across thousands of years, features six main characters and, in Tykwer’s words, spans genres including "Melvillean high-seas drama to California noir and dystopian fantasy."
Even one of those would seem to be a daunting task for a director, and it does make you wonder what Tykwer will have chopped out as he brought the plot in to a more manageable movie length.
Now we just have to wait to see if any of those big fish swallow his dangling, shiny hooks. But if he can make this thing work, the result could be something great.