Cloud Atlas

There's a bit of buzz generating around the upcoming epic Cloud Atlas, which is still in the early stages of production. The film seems to be shooting for the biggest possible reception, featuring actors such as Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon and Jim Broadbent. It's being co-directed by the Wachowskis (the odd pair who made The Matrix) and Tom Twyker (Run Lola Run) and is based on a great piece of enigmatic literature also called Cloud Atlas. There's some concept art at Aint It Cool News but I'm a little concerned that people seem to be fixating on it as a 'science fiction' film. The novel actually takes place across six different time periods, with each period written in a different style, here's a breakdown:1850s Pacific Ocean voyage, written in the style of a historical journal

• 1930s Belgium, written in letters (IE. An epistolary novel)
• 1970s America, written like a pulp detective novel.
• 2000s England, written in the style of a memoir (and later dramatised as a film)
• A couple of centuries into the future in Korea, written as a dystopian novel ala 1984 or Blade Runner.
• In the far future in Hawaii, written in the oral tradition of tribal storytelling but also post-apocalyptic and written in an invented dialect ala Riddley Walker.

So only one third of the story can truly be called 'science fiction'. I can't help but think they'll mess this film up, but I'll be very interested to see how they do it - especially as the book has a rather unique 'russian doll'-like structure.