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From acclaimed filmmakers Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski
comes the powerful and inspiring epic “Cloud Atlas,” based on the best-selling novel by David
Mitchell.
Drama, mystery, action and enduring love thread through a single story that unfolds in
multiple timelines over the span of 500 years. Characters meet and reunite from one life to the
next. Born and reborn.
As the consequences of their actions and choices impact one another through the past, the
present and the distant future, one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and a single act of
kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.
Everything is connected.
Academy Award® winners Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia,” “Forrest Gump”) and Halle
Berry (“Monster’s Ball”) lead a stellar international cast that also includes Oscar® winner Jim
Broadbent (“Iris”), Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy,
Xun Zhou, Keith David and David Gyasi, with Oscar®
winner Susan Sarandon (“Dead Man
Walking”) and Hugh Grant. Each member of the ensemble appears in multiple roles as the story
moves through time.
The film is written for the screen and directed by Lana Wachowski & Tom Tykwer &
Andy Wachowski. The Wachowskis previously teamed as writers/directors of the
groundbreaking “Matrix” trilogy; Tom Tykwer won an Independent Spirit Award and earned a
BAFTA Award nomination as the director/writer of “Run Lola Run,” and more recently directed
the award-winning thriller “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.”
Based on the celebrated best-selling novel by David Mitchell, “Cloud Atlas” is produced
by two-time Oscar® nominee Grant Hill (“The Thin Red Line,” “The Tree of Life”), three-time
BAFTA Award nominee Stefan Arndt (“The White Ribbon,” “Goodbye Lenin!,” “Run Lola
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Run”), Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski. Philip Lee, Uwe Schott and
Wilson Qiu serve as executive producers, with co-producers Peter Lam, Tony Teo and
Alexander van Dülmen, and Gigi Oeri as associate producer.
The creative filmmaking team includes directors of photography John Toll and Frank
Griebe; production designers Uli Hanisch and Hugh Bateup; editor Alexander Berner; costume
designers Kym Barrett and Pierre-Yves Gayraud; and visual effects supervisor Dan Glass.
The music is composed by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents a Cloud Atlas Production/X-Filme Creative Pool and
Anarchos Production, in association with A Company and ARD Degeto, “Cloud Atlas.” The
film will be distributed in North America, the UK, France, Spain, Australia and Japan by Warner
Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
Concurrently with its North American release in standard theaters, “Cloud Atlas” will
appear in select IMAX® theatres, digitally re-mastered into the IMAX format.
It will be released in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland by X Verleih;
in China by Dreams of the Dragon Pictures; in Hong Kong by Media Asia Group; in Singapore
and Malaysia by Ascension Pictures; in Korea by Bloomage Company; in Taiwan by Long
Shong Group; in Russia and Eastern Europe by A Company; and in other territories through
Focus Features International. cloudatlasmovie.com
“Cloud Atlas” is rated R by the MPAA for violence, language,
sexuality/nudity and some drug use.
For downloadable general press information,
please visit: http://press.warnerbros.com
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ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
“Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others.
Past and present. And by each crime, and every kindness,
we birth our future.” – Sonmi-451, 2144
An ambitious and dazzling epic spanning five centuries, “Cloud Atlas” explores
questions about life and purpose that humanity has contemplated since the beginning of
conscious thought. With a kaleidoscopic array of action, emotion and urgent human connections
that lights points along an infinite timeline, it suggests that individual lives continue their
personal trajectories through the ages. Souls, reborn, renew their bonds with one another, time
and again. Mistakes can be rectified…or repeated. Freedom can be gained or lost, but is forever
sought.
And always, love survives.
“The scale of its ideas is what we were instantly attracted to, its compassion for human
beings, its boldness and audacity and the way it felt simultaneously classic and yet completely
new,” says Lana Wachowski one of the film’s three writer/directors who adapted the award-
wining David Mitchell novel on which it is based. “Thematically, it transcends boundaries of
race and gender, location and time, and tells a story that implies the nature of humanity is beyond
all those boundaries. That’s what intrigued us when we read the novel and then when we started
working on the script.”
Filmmakers and longtime friends Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer had often
thought about working together, but it was their passion for Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas that finally
galvanized the three into action. Befitting its unconventional storyline, they formed a truly
unique creative alliance to share writing and directing efforts in bringing this book that has been
hailed as a modern masterpiece to the big screen.
“It strikes so many powerful notes,” says Tykwer. “There’s truth to be found in simple,
individual observations that anyone can relate to, but, by setting those moments into a broader
dramatic context and with the sweep of time, you see the human condition in a fascinating way.”
Encompassing a range of genres and set simultaneously in the past, present and future,
“Cloud Atlas” illustrates how events and decisions made by the people in one period can
reverberate in unforeseeable ways across the timeline to touch the lives of others.
A San Francisco attorney harbors a fleeing slave on a fateful voyage home from the
Pacific Islands in 1849…a poor, gifted composer in pre-World War II Britain struggles to
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complete his magnum opus before the cost of a reckless act catches up with him…a journalist in
1973 works to avert an industrial disaster…a present-day publisher, on the eve of his greatest
success, faces unjust imprisonment…a genetically engineered worker in the year 2144 feels the
forbidden awakening of human consciousness…and in the ravaged far-off future of the 2300s, a
goat herder battles his conscience over what he has done to stay alive. Each scenario is
introduced, then unfolds alongside the others, while fluid transitions from one to another reveal
the ways in which they are all linked.
It soon becomes clear that these are not separate stories, but moments captured from a
single flow. “The key is to abandon the idea that it’s six stories. It’s one,” Andy says. “Each of
the pieces and time periods reflects upon the others throughout the movie. As all these souls
evolve, you see the connections between them, and follow their chronologic progress.”
Likewise, each character is part of an ensemble that eternally returns and regroups in new
identities and circumstances. “It’s not just one person; it’s all the major characters in each of the
worlds,” offers author David Mitchell. “The relationships between them and the nature of those
relationships also evolve. In a universe where reincarnation is possible and a film where the
past, present and future co-exist, death is just one door closing and another door opening.”
In this way, conflicts arising in one era may be resolved lifetimes later, injustices
revisited—with often surprising results—and lovers can mature together through the centuries.
“Part of the movie is a great love story that moves through different lives, but you see it in
moments, not all at once,” Lana reveals, referring to the way in which a couple’s young love can
grow and influence their actions via repeated encounters through time. “This is another of its
themes—that love can alter the direction of your life at any time.”
Other forces are also in play. Tom Hanks, who appears in six roles, representing the
journey of a single soul through points along the continuum, observes, “The characters are often
witnessing something that could change their lives forever and they have to act. They can be
heroes or cowards. The question is, ‘What is history but countless moments like this, strung
together? What is the human condition but a series of decisions you have to make?’”
With eloquent examples of courage, hope, and wonder—as well as treachery, struggle,
and loss—“Cloud Atlas” brings such moments into sharp focus. “It’s a wildly entertaining piece
of storytelling,” Hanks continues. “Take what you will from it. There’s never a moment when
the camera is not capturing some spectacular stunt or human emotion. When I read the
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screenplay, it initially raised questions about who these people are, and then their connections
became evident. Their artistic struggles, their fights for survival and the choices that bridge one
life to the next also became evident and I was completely involved. It’s a perfect blending of
David Mitchell’s story and the cinematic power of our three directors—a brilliant piece of
cinematic literature that examines the connectivity of the human race through time.”
“This was truly a one-of-a-kind filmmaking experience,” says Halle Berry, who likewise
assumes six identities. “I don’t think I’ll ever be part of another film like this. I love its
originality. There are so many barriers being broken here, so many exciting concepts and,
hopefully, it will leave people thinking about how they perceive the world and their own lives.”
These elements that resonated so strongly with Tykwer and the Wachowskis also
attracted esteemed and accomplished actors from around the world. Starring with Hanks and
Berry in a corresponding series of characterizations is a cast that includes Jim Broadbent, Hugo
Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy, Xun Zhou, Keith David,
David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon and Hugh Grant. As the story moves forward, the focus shifts
from one group of central players to another, while others figure in key moments or make their
presence known in more subtle ways.
“It’s a project of enormous scope,” says producer Grant Hill, marking his fourth
collaboration with the Wachowskis. “It has depth of character, romance and pathos, and also a
broad physical scale. Everything plays out on a giant canvas.”
“There are huge chase sequences here, incredible sets, really epic storytelling, but also
food for thought,” adds producer Stefan Arndt, Tykwer’s producing partner.
Says Lana, “We love to make movies that are exciting, entertaining and romantic, but
that also explore ideas. We’ve tried in our work to offer many levels or many ways to enjoy our
films: visually, we try to show the audience things they haven’t seen before; emotionally, we try
to offer enough thrills or action or romance to satisfy the kid in us as well as the audience; and,
finally, we try to offer new perspectives or thoughts about very personal issues or ideas relevant
to our everyday lives.”
“That’s what drew me originally to Andy and Lana’s work, the conviction that you can
engage the heart and the mind simultaneously,” states Tykwer. “You can have this fusion engine
of intriguing issues to talk about, and yet, while watching it, you’re just blown away.”
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FROM BOOK TO SCREEN: MAKING THE CONNECTIONS
“Listen close and I’ll yarn you ‘bout the first time
we met eye to eye…” – Zachry, 2346
The opportunity to bring audiences a tale of this magnitude was irresistible to the
Wachowskis and Tykwer. But, how? Mitchell presented his story as a series of opening acts
whose plots reach a climactic halfway point, stop, and are then resolved one by one. “We knew
we couldn’t make that structure work for a film,” Lana recalls. “But it made us think about the
possibilities of expanding the confines of a standard cinematic narrative.”
Mitchell gave each chapter its own genre “to make the parts different enough so the
stylistic color of one doesn’t bleed into another,” he says. “I thought of it as a menu with courses
from different cuisines.” This construct the filmmakers gladly adopted, making one segment
primarily a drama, one a romance, and still others a crime thriller, a comedy, and a futuristic sci-
fi adventure.
Yet the power of “Cloud Atlas” is not the ways in which these elements diverge but in
how they weave seamlessly into what Andy calls “a mosaic. As you go from scene to scene, you
are creating that mosaic in your head. You are automatically finding the associations between
them. So we intuitively went in that direction for the film.”
Distilling scenes and relationships from the book onto index cards, the filmmakers then
spent days organizing them into groups and arrived at a more direct interlacing of storylines.
Says Andy, “When you’re staring at these hundreds of cards, you see the characters side by side
and naturally gravitate toward the points where they have similar arcs, or how one picks up
where another has finished.”
“Our goal was to develop a meta-narrative to bind everything together into one flowing
story with its own momentum,” Tykwer explains.
Exploring the novel’s motifs of eternal recurrence allowed for haunting déjà vu moments
of recognition when characters meet seemingly for the first time, yet feel they know each other,
or the notes of a symphony ring familiar to a music store clerk who might have been the person
who composed it a lifetime ago.
Toward that end, the filmmakers expanded on Mitchell’s device of a comet-shaped
birthmark on certain characters to indicate the migration of a single soul. “In the novel,” says
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Mitchell, “the comet birthmark insinuates that it’s the same character being reborn over time…a
soul crossing through eternity, shifting its form.”
On screen, that rebirth is represented instead by the visual through-line of actors
reappearing in one period after another, taking another turn on the karmic wheel. Tykwer says,
“As we discussed the ties between characters that occur over time, and the ways in which it
sometimes seems one person fulfills what another had begun hundreds of years earlier, we
thought, ‘Why couldn’t it be the same actor following through?’ Why not cast the film based on
the idea that each actor portrays not an individual role, but several roles that, together, represent
the evolution of a single being.”
Adds Hanks, “Each character has its own personal arc, but there’s an overall arc that they
form together. One lays the foundation and another continues. Like a string of pearls.”
When players return in successive lifetimes as souls inhabiting new vessels, they
naturally appear across a range of geographic locales, and often as different nationalities or
genders. Dialect coaches William Conacher, Peggy Hall-Plessas and Julia Wilson Dickson
worked with the cast to help develop convincing characterizations as the assemblage of
American, Australian, British, Chinese, German and Korean natives modified their speech to
match their shifting cultural screen identities.
“One of the characters I portray is a German Jewish woman, and one is a woman from
the 24th
century,” Berry recounts. “As an actor, that’s a thrilling prospect and a huge challenge.”
At the same time, she says, “People are just people. And they will always be, no matter the
circumstances or the time. What I needed to do was find in each the human quality that’s
relatable to everyone because that will always be just flesh and bones, heart and brains.”
Meanwhile, the birthmark image remains. But rather than a sign of passage, the
filmmakers used it to identify those who have reached a certain level of enlightenment and are on
the precipice of a critical decision that could significantly alter their lives, or the lives of others.
Says Tykwer, “It became more of a messaging system between a person in one era who does
something or creates something that then inspires the person bearing that mark in the next
lifetime.”
With this protocol in place, it enabled additional interesting possibilities. Notes Lana,
“We started to wonder if the villain of one time could be the hero of another. And once we made
that connection, the question was, how does a villain make that transformation? The comet
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became a phenomenological event. Its appearance symbolizes the opportunity for that individual
to make a difference in the world.”
For Mitchell, embarking on the first film adaptation of one of his works, “The process
was bewitching to watch. I’m delighted and in a way envious of the way these filmmakers have
disassembled my book and reassembled it in ways that play to the strengths of their medium. I
feel like the provider of stems cells, which they have grown into their own creation. It’s a
magnificent piece of work. I was swept away.”
Taking an equally unorthodox approach to the physical production, the producers
pioneered a plan for two units to shoot “Cloud Atlas” concurrently, beginning in September
2011—one helmed by Tom Tykwer and the other helmed by Lana and Andy Wachowski. This
spilt their production time by half, keeping the substantial cast for only three months instead of
six, and required duplication of key contributors, including two cinematographers, two
production designers, two lead costume and hair and makeup designers.
Using Berlin’s Babelsberg Studios as base camp, the Wachowskis filmed in and around
Berlin and Germany’s Saxony region, as well as in Mallorca, Spain, for the segments set in 1849,
2144 and the post-apocalyptic 24th
century. At the same time, Team Tykwer set off for points in
Scotland to capture those set in 1936, 1973 and 2012. The actors, nearly all of whom appeared
in each piece on the timeline, shuttled from one locale to another.
Tykwer also composed the “Cloud Atlas” score, with Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil,
months before cameras rolled. Composing their own music is uncommon enough among
filmmakers, and to begin so early is even rarer, but Tykwer found the approach valuable in
helping define the tones and meanings of each scene as it was being created, and to inspire his
cast and crew. The heart of the score is a symphony born in the 1936 sequence about a young
musician laboring to realize his masterwork, called The Cloud Atlas Sextet, and its challenge,
says Tykwer, “was to have a piece of music that connects with the period in which it is
supposedly written and also serves as the central theme for the entire movie, reappearing and
underscoring many scenes; a piece of music that someone who hears it ages later may recognize
as something from his own memory.”
For the filmmakers, bringing “Cloud Atlas” to the screen was undeniably a labor of love.
Even while writing the script, they agreed to move forward only if author David Mitchell was
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enthusiastic about their adaptation, and that commitment extended through every aspect of the
production and was shared by cast and crew alike.
“It’s a fabulous filmmaking experiment, an epic, adult film about epic, adult ideas and
what filmmaking is all about,” states Susan Sarandon, who plays, among other parts, an Indian
man and a spiritual leader in the 2300s. “It’s one of those rare scripts you read where you don’t
know, three pages in, what’s going to happen.”
“The whole approach is adventurous and ambitious and refuses to go down formulaic
lines,” adds Hugh Grant, who particularly relished the way he was cast against type in an
escalating range of villainous roles.
“Even now—and I know this sounds a bit mushy—I get teary with gratitude when I
think about the fact that we actually got to make this thing,” says Lana, echoing the sentiments of
her colleagues. “We are deeply indebted to all the actors who joined us and embraced this
experimental concept and this extraordinary story. Few movies have asked so much of their
actors. After our cast read-through, one of the funnest we’ve ever experienced, Hugo Weaving
summed it up best: ‘The story demands the characters act with courage and faith and that is also
true of everyone here in this room.’ The making of this film constantly demanded our courage
and faith.”
STORY, CAST AND CHARACTERS
“Yesterday my life was headed in one direction.
Today it is headed in another.” – Isaac Sachs, 1973
“The pressure that Lana, Andy and Tom put on themselves to see this project through
was equaled by the faith they had in us as actors,” notes Tom Hanks. “It really was
extraordinary the way they allowed us to follow our instincts. This shoot went by in the wink of
an eye because every day we were embarking on an exciting new sequence and I was part of a
great team—a genuinely unified ensemble.”
“Having each of us play multiple parts was an inspired idea,” proclaims Jim Broadbent.
“There have been various star vehicles before where the leading actor played several parts, but
nothing like this. It’s quite unique, and so well suited for this story, where everything is related
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and the energy from one current charges the next until you have this beautiful momentum, one
exciting moment after another.”
Because of the way production was synchronized around dual hubs, actors spent the
shoot segueing from one set to another—often from one country to another—with stops between
for makeup and wardrobe that would sometimes transform them so dramatically that they were
able to momentarily pass amongst one another unrecognized.
Likening the experience to a fun and festive Cirque du Soleil atmosphere, with the cast
leaping bravely from one trapeze to another, Susan Sarandon recalls, “There was a day I looked
into the mirror and, for a second, couldn’t see myself, which was the first time in my career that
has ever happened. It was a startling experience. But it’s just one of the ways cinema gives you
the chance to take on the perspective of a character you thought you had nothing in common
with and, in the process, see how alike we are, and how little time and age and color and gender
really mean in the scheme of things.”
By all accounts, it was a performer’s dream. Says Ben Whishaw, “It reminded me of
why I became an actor in the first place, and I think that was true for all of us. Most of the time,
no matter the role, you look more or less like yourself, but the instinct is always there to be
transformative and this has been an amazing opportunity for that. It’s been really liberating.”
For some, perhaps more liberating than others. As Hugh Grant dryly notes, “I was quite
intrigued by the story, which is brilliant, but I would have done it just for the chance to be a
cannibal chief who does a lot of pillaging and throat-slitting. There wasn’t much throat-slitting
in ‘Sense and Sensibility.’”
“Cloud Atlas” begins in 1849…and in 1936…1973…2012…2144…and 2346.
By introducing all its narrative threads at once and then rhythmically shifting focus from
one to another throughout, the film propels audiences simultaneously down six parallel tracks
that are experienced as one. Causes and effects immediately reveal their synchronicity and links
between characters and times are vividly realized as each piece builds toward a common end.
1849, The South Pacific
Jim Sturgess portrays idealistic young San Francisco attorney Adam Ewing, who has
traveled to the Pacific Islands to conduct business with sanctimonious plantation owner Rev.
Horrox, played by Hugh Grant. While there, Ewing witnesses the savage flogging of one of
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Horrox’s slaves, Autua, played by David Gyasi, who locks eyes with him in the moment as if
embracing a kindred spirit. Later, when Autua stows away in the lawyer’s cabin on his voyage
home, Ewing is forced to choose between his professional obligations and his growing moral
convictions—a decision that will reverberate through the centuries in ways he cannot imagine.
“There’s a moment when Autua asks Ewing to either save him or to take his life, so the
stakes are quite high,” Gyasi recounts.
“It’s the first time Ewing has seen the horror of the slave trade,” adds Sturgess, marking
the scene that sets off a series of recurring examples of how people strive through the ages to
overcome oppression of one form or another. “It was a time when it was easy for a man like him
to get caught up in the mentality of people like Horrox, who believed they were at the top of the
ladder of civilization, but he has the innate feeling that something is very wrong with this. And
then, suddenly there’s a chance for him to do something about it.”
At the same time, Ewing’s other shipmate, the malignant opportunist Dr. Goose, played
by Tom Hanks, is pursuing a very different course.
Filling out the ever-shifting ensemble, Jim Broadbent appears in this timeframe as the
ultimately pragmatic ship captain Molyneux; Susan Sarandon as Horrox’s suppressed, but
seething wife; Keith David as the Maori slave Kupaka, who silently endures; Halle Berry as
another Maori working the plantation; Hugo Weaving as Ewing’s entitled father-in-law, Haskell
Moore; and Doona Bae, in western guise, as Ewing’s beloved wife, Tilda.
1936, Scotland
Ben Whishaw is the roguishly charming, brash, and immensely gifted young composer
Robert Frobisher. Disinherited by his father and finding all doors closed to him in England,
Frobisher takes leave of his lover, Rufus Sixsmith, played by James D’Arcy, and sets out to
make a name for himself on his own terms. Apprenticing himself to Vyvyan Ayrs, a renowned
composer past his creative prime—played by Jim Broadbent as a man in his 70s—Frobisher
plans to write his masterpiece: a symphony he will call The Cloud Atlas Sextet. All the while he
keeps in touch with his beloved Sixsmith through letters, imagining a triumphant return. But
Frobisher underestimates Ayrs’ power until his situation takes a desperate turn.
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“Because Frobisher is young and full of creative energy and ideas he thinks he’s
manipulating Ayrs, but maybe Ayrs is manipulating him,” Whishaw hints. “It becomes a
struggle over the music—Frobisher to gain recognition, and Ayrs to retain his reputation.”
Supporting the main characters in Frobisher’s saga are Halle Berry as Ayrs’ trophy wife,
the stoic Jocasta, and Hugo Weaving as Ayrs’ friend, Tadeusz Kesselring, who harbors an ugly
secret. Hugh Grant appears as a posh hotel staffer refusing to allow Frobisher and Sixsmith a
peaceful parting, and Tom Hanks is the greedy manager of another, far seedier inn.
1973, San Francisco
Halle Berry takes the lead in 1973 as journalist Luisa Rey, who uncovers corporate
corruption at a nuclear power plant that could affect thousands of lives and puts her at odds with
duplicitous plant president Lloyd Hooks, played by Hugh Grant. She is aided in her
investigation by the same Rufus Sixsmith of the Frobisher piece, now an elderly physicist, and
by plant employee Isaac Sachs, Tom Hanks again, who is inexplicably struck by how familiar
Luisa looks and how strong his impulse is to help her.
“Luisa is at a crossroads,” says Berry. “As a journalist, she feels she hasn’t quite lived up
to her expectations of what that means, and then this gift falls in her lap, a major opportunity to
take a risk and so something potentially significant. She really doesn’t know how tough she is or
whether or not she can actually accomplish it, but once she makes that decision she will have to
do things she never thought possible.”
Targeted by Hooks’ hitman Bill Smoke, played by Hugo Weaving, Luisa’s only chance
to survive is to put her faith into the hands of Keith David’s character, Napier, a man officially in
Hook’s employ, but who has clearly had enough of taking his orders.
David sees him, in period, as “a kind of Shaft character, so that was a frame of reference.
What was exciting about it was reaching this part of the journey, where this soul you first saw as
the Maori Kupaka now has more opportunities as Napier and he takes advantage of that to grow.
Maybe further down the line he might be something even greater.”
Also seen on this part of the timeline are Chinese actress Xun Zhou as a male hotel
worker; Korean-born Doona Bae as a Hispanic woman—a role for which Bae, already polishing
English for her other roles, had to master Spanish dialogue; David Gyasi as Luisa’s father,
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Lester, a celebrated war correspondent who is her inspiration; and Ben Whishaw in a poignant
portrayal as a record store clerk who cannot get a certain 1930s melody out of his head.
2012, England
Jim Broadbent returns in the form of small-time publisher Timothy Cavendish, who
happily falls into a mound of cash when sales of his latest book—a vanity bio by the thuggish
Dermot Hoggins, played with a rugged Scottish brogue by Tom Hanks—go through the roof.
Unfortunately, his windfall attracts creditors, some of whom are seeking more than money.
Says Broadbent, “He goes on the run and finds what he believes is a secure place, but it
turns out to be so secure that even he can’t get out of it. So it becomes an escape story where
poor Cavendish has to find a way to save himself.”
Hugh Grant takes a turn as the publisher’s vengeful brother, Denholme, while Ben
Whishaw is Denholme’s faithless wife, Georgette. Hugo Weaving also appears as domineering
female Nurse Noakes, with whom Cavendish does battle in this piece that offers the saga’s most
liberal sprinkling of comedy. Susan Sarandon portrays Cavendish’s redemptive long-lost love,
Ursula; Jim Sturgess appears as a volatile Scottish football fan; James D’Arcy as a nursing home
orderly; and Halle Berry as a woman who momentarily catches author Dermot Hoggins’ eye.
“Nurse Noakes was the biggest challenge for me of all the parts and also the most fun,”
offers Weaving. “She’s a hideous gorgon who infantilizes and despises the residents, but it’s her
who’s dead inside. She’s been in this institution for many years and I believe the place has
gotten into her bones.”
2144, Neo Seoul
Doona Bae takes center stage as the fabricant Sonmi-451, genetically engineered to spend
her brief existence as a compliant restaurant server in an ominously totalitarian society built atop
the ruins of a flooded Seoul. Encouraged to nurture forbidden independent thoughts by sister
fabricant Yoona-939, played by Xun Zhou, Sonmi embarks on a path from which there can be no
retreat. With the help of revolutionary Hae-Joo Chang, portrayed by Jim Sturgess, Sonmi takes
her courageous and perilous first steps toward a far-reaching insurrection.
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“Yoona and Sonmi were not content with their lives. They had their own way of thinking
and came to believe that things did not have to be a certain way. They wanted freedom,” says
Chinese actress Zhou, making her Western film debut with “Cloud Atlas.”
Bae, likewise making her Western screen debut, acknowledges, “It’s Yoona who makes
Sonmi curious about the larger human world. She wakes Sonmi up so she can think for herself,
but it’s Chang, the first pureblood who is kind to her, who shows her that she can stand up for
herself with dignity.”
Representing the repressors in this society are Hugh Grant as smarmy Seer Rhee, the
restaurant manager who extends his authority after hours, and Hugo Weaving as Boardman
Mephi, bureaucratic upholder of the status quo. Halle Berry and Susan Sarandon take on the
male roles of Ovid, a doctor who removes Sonmi’s restricting collar, and Yusouf Suleiman, a
scientist who champions the fabricants’ rights, while Keith David leads the resistance movement
as An-Kor Apis. Tom Hanks appears as an actor in a movie depiction of the publisher
Cavendish’s life, which inspires Sonmi, Jim Broadbent appears as a Korean musician, and James
D’Arcy is the government Archivist tasked with recording her confession.
After the Fall, 2321 and 2346, Hawaii
Hanks last appears as the damaged but fundamentally decent goatherd Zachry, one of a
peaceful tribe that survived a planetary cataclysm that plunged most of humanity into a primitive
way of life. Among the remnants of their cultural past is an image of Sonmi, who has taken on
goddess stature, and whose words are cited by Susan Sarandon, playing the village Abbess.
For this world, author Mitchell reached into the future for an imagined dialect in the form
of an unadorned, shorthand communication. The directors retained this language and worked
with the cast in a Los Angeles recording studio prior to shooting, to ensure it would translate on
screen.
“We settled on a language that was simply stripped-down English, using minimal words
to convey feelings,” states Halle Berry, who appears in the segment as Meronym, an emissary of
an advanced human community called Prescients. Adopting the pidgin dialect to gain his trust,
Meronym seeks Zachry’s aid to locate something she desperately needs. But to help her, Zachry
must not only put his life at risk and deny everything he believes in, but quell the doubts inside
that speak to him through the taunting voice of Hugo Weaving’s character, Old Georgie.
15
Xun Zhou appears as Zachry’s sister, Rose, Jim Sturgess as his brother-in-law, Adam,
and Ben Whishaw as a fellow tribesman. Hugh Grant takes his most spectacularly evil turn as
the Kona Chief, leader of a marauding band of cannibal warriors, while Keith David, David
Gyasi and Jim Broadbent are counted among the enlightened Prescients.
Addressing how the life cycle of his roles reaches its nadir here, Grant observes, “Clearly
the potential is there for souls to improve—and some do, dramatically, but some don’t. They
never get better. They get worse. It all comes down to free will and the choices we make.”
THE LONG VIEW
“I think I have fallen in love with Luisa Rey. Is this possible?
I just met her and yet I feel like something very important
has happened to me.” – Isaac Sachs, 1973
As the consequences of such choices play out through eternity, individual character arcs
expand into the larger arcs that define a life.
“I start out as a native woman who has little power, then Jocasta, who is really a shell of a
person, with no voice,” says Berry. “Then there’s Luisa Rey, who’s struggling hard to find her
voice and her strength. I have a moment in the Cavendish story as a mysterious party guest, and
we don’t know much about her other than her confident air, but in the next life I portray a doctor,
Ovid, working on the right side of the moral balance, so that by the time we arrive at Meronym
you see in her the culmination of this journey and why she’s so strong.”
Similarly, Keith David’s characters run the gamut from slave to leader. And when Jim
Sturgess appears as Ewing he makes his decisions instinctively as a man beginning to
comprehend the meaning of justice, but those ideas are more precisely formed by the time that
soul has evolved into the freedom fighter Chang, as “Cloud Atlas” acknowledges humanity’s
endless and universal yearning for self-determination.
“If all my roles were to have a theme, it would be about working within institutions they
don’t like and wish they could change,” states James D’Arcy, whose characters include those
employed by a corrupt power company, a horrible nursing home and a repressive government.
“But my last incarnation is the Archivist, and even though he’s technically part of the oppression
he finally takes a stand, so there’s hope for that soul.”
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Because of the way the filmmakers deconstructed the novel for the screen, Andy
Wachowski says, “You see a moment where Autua is in danger of being shot as he hangs from
the ship’s rigging, and then a similar point where Sonmi is nearly killed while breaking out of
prison. If you were to sandwich these moments on top of each other you see the similarities and
the turning points.”
“I lost count of the number of ways the directors made one scene fit with the next, a
thousand miles or several centuries away,” adds David Mitchell. “It may be a visual link, or a
single word, or in the architecture, or an actor’s face. But the effect is that of a single, ingenious
mosaic, glinting across time.” Offering another example where Chang fires a weapon at his
pursuers during a chase with Sonmi above the Neo Seoul skyline, the author says, “The scene
ends with a glass wall, cracking, and the next begins with a crack spreading across the
windscreen of Luisa Rey's VW, as it plunges under the waters of San Francisco Bay.”
Ricocheting through time also alters the concept of loss. When lovers are torn apart in
one era, Tykwer notes, “We have the possibility of cutting to the same actors meeting again,
bringing a happy ending to a moment that seemingly ended in heartbreak.”
Meanwhile, running throughout the story is the idea of creative expression, and of
leaving behind what Tykwer calls “a legacy, in the form of art that will then serve to influence
someone else.” The chronicle of Adam Ewing’s 1849 sea voyage becomes a published journal
that Frobisher reads in 1936. Frobisher’s letters subsequently fall into the hands of Luisa Rey in
1973, and Luisa’s story about the plot at the nuclear power plant then becomes the manuscript of
a book, submitted to publisher Cavendish. Cavendish’s modern-day adventure becomes the
subject of a film that Sonmi watches in 2144, and Sonmi’s declaration of freedom is repeated
and remembered until, even in a society that has lost its books and technology, her catechism is
revered by Zachry and his tribe into the 24th
century.
Similarly, power and powerlessness recur as one of mankind’s most persistent conflicts.
Hanks’ basest character, 1849’s Dr. Goose, justifies his thievery and disregard for human life
early on by declaring, “The weak are meat, the strong do eat,” and, lifetimes later, his soul still
grapples with that concept—as do others, from both sides of the equation.
But while some people never learn, others make huge strides, a joyful course perhaps
most apparent in Hanks’ full range of characterizations, from the vile Goose through to Zachry.
Still, vestiges of the past remain.
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“A moment arises where Zachry is forced into a situation where he can be violent again,”
Tykwer describes. “He has his knife at the throat of a Kona warrior, and Tom is such an
amazing actor that you can see on his face those earlier characters overlaid in Zachry. It’s the
force of that old killer, Goose, somewhere deep in his genes. Although he’s a different man
now, Goose would not have hesitated.”
In outlining this path for the Zachry soul, Lana says, “We were simultaneously drawn to
this concept, which became one of the meta-narratives of the film: how a person can go from the
worst of us to the best. All these people can remain in a narcissistic, exploitative, predaceous
life, or they can change. So we wanted to start with a character that was a pure predator, Goose,
and trace his progress upwards until he becomes potentially the comet hero.”
Often that evolution is triggered by love, illustrated by the interlocking nature of Hanks’
and Berry’s roles. Lana continues, “When Luisa Rey meets Isaac Sachs at the power plant he’s
in the middle of his journey—not a bad guy, but still working for this evil organization. But he
falls in love with her and that literally changes his direction.”
TWICE THE WORK, HALF THE TIME
“No matter what you do, it will never amount to anything more than a
single drop of water in a limitless ocean.” – Haskell Moore, 1849
“What is an ocean, but a multitude of drops?” – Adam Ewing, 1849
Tykwer and the Wachowskis did not anticipate working on two fronts when they set out
to adapt Cloud Atlas. The logistics of filmmaking were overshadowed then by their focus on
capturing the essence of Mitchell’s novel. But as the script took shape, the cast assembled and
the scope of what they were trying to accomplish became clear, the dual-directing plan emerged
as the most efficient. They could shoot in half the time by dividing the effort between two units
operating concurrently, each focusing on three of the story’s six segments, and each with their
own established team of talented collaborators, while the actors moved from one to the other.
“One year before the start of production, we brought the department heads from both
crews together for a four-week summit in Berlin so we could all sit down and work through the
script,” says producer Grant Hill. “We were testing relationships and methods and assessing
how this whole thing could work.” Taking their cue from the directors, the feeling was
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overwhelmingly collaborative. “With all these great people open to professional partnership, we
realized it would be a matter of providing clear direction and an iron-clad plan, and then
harnessing all this firepower.”
The Wachowskis navigated Adam Ewing’s 1849 ocean voyage, Sonmi’s 2144 rebellion
and the events of Zachry’s life in the 24th
century. Their team included production designer
Hugh Bateup and director of photography John Toll.
Tom Tykwer captured the journey of musical amanuensis Robert Frobisher in 1936,
journalist Luisa Rey’s exposé of corporate conspiracy in 1973, and the singular, often comical,
predicament of London publisher Cavendish in 2012. Joining him was production designer Uli
Hanisch and director of photography Frank Griebe.
Production launched in September 2011 with Tykwer in Scotland and the Wachowskis in
Mallorca. Combined, their exterior locations would ultimately include Glasgow, Edinburgh and
the Scottish countryside, Saxony, and sites in Berlin, before culminating in Babelsberg’s state-
of-the-art soundstages for interiors and green screen.
Though countries apart, the trio was in constant touch. “The directors thought through
every single detail, every cut and connection between all the pieces of the story and were
tremendously prepared prior to shooting,” producer Stefan Arndt acknowledges. “During
filming, they would call each other to say, ‘You have to change something here; when you shoot
the next scene, know that the actor is doing this or that.’ They were great communicators, really
able to share their decisions.”
Mallorca provided the settings for the first and last portions of the saga, serving first as
the Pacific Island from which Adam Ewing and Autua set sail for America, then as the Hawaiian
valley where Zachry lives some 500 years later. Says Lana, “We decided it should be the same
island. That, as well as the extremes of the Tom Hanks roles from Goose to Zachry, bookend the
first and the final portions of the timeline and help to underscore the theme of recurrence.”
The scene in which Ewing encounters Dr. Goose on the beach was filmed in Sa Calobra
Cove in Torrent de Pareis, and Horrox’s circa 1800s tobacco plantation was created on a private
estate in Mallorca’s Es Llombards area.
Ewing’s ship, The Prophetess, was actually a beautifully preserved and seaworthy period
vessel called the Earl of Pembroke, built in Sweden and now docked in Charleston Harbor,
Cornwall, by the Square Sail Company. It sailed to meet the production in Mallorca, where it
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underwent some cosmetic changes. Its captain, Robin Davies, served as marine coordinator for
the film, and he and his 15-member crew also appear as extras in the deck scenes.
Inland, the filmmakers found the rugged, mountainous backdrop for Zachry’s trek with
Meronym, taking advantage of the spectacular view atop Puig Mayor—at 4711 feet, the highest
peak of all the Balearic Islands. There, an existing 1950s-era satellite station still maintained by
the military was perfectly adaptable for the structure Meronym is seeking.
From Mallorca, the Wachowskis traveled to Saxony in Southeastern Germany, where the
region’s famous sandstone rock formations and thick forests completed the picture of Zachry’s
home and the surrounding woods where his family is menaced by the Kona. In constructing the
village, Bateup comments, “We didn’t want to present this society as too rudimentary, as if they
had reverted to the Dark Ages. We decided they were two or three generations beyond a world
collapse and had learned how to survive and do things again. They made things from the
materials available to them, what they scavenged from cities. They’re artisans, not barbarians.”
For continuity, the small herd of goats Zachry is seen tending while at the Mallorcan site
was transported to Saxony. Joining them were six horses, trained in Spain and brought from
Madrid to Saxony for the terrifying Kona attacks on the village. Spanish stunt coordinator Jordi
Casares and his team rode the horses in these action sequences, while expert rider and Steadicam
operator Jorge Agero was given the decidedly unsteady challenge of filming while riding.
Tykwer, meanwhile, transformed a Glasgow neighborhood with inclined streets into 1973
San Francisco. Signage and lights were replaced and locally sourced period cars brought in for a
tense chase and shoot-out as Luisa Rey and Napier scramble to elude the assassin Bill Smoke.
Edinburgh’s Council Chambers became the hotel where Frobisher escapes down the
drainpipe and, later, the city’s famous Walter Scott Monument served as his retreat and the place
where he last sees the love of his life. The 200-foot monument, heretofore never closed to the
public for filming, granted “Cloud Atlas” two days’ access so cameras and equipment could be
hoisted up to the viewing platform by crane rather than via its narrow spiral staircase.
For Ayrs’ stately manor where Frobisher seeks employment, Tykwer and production
designer Uli Hanisch joined the locations team in scouting the Scottish countryside to find the
privately owned Overtoun House in West Dunbartonshire. It would serve not only as Ayrs’
home in 1936, but appear re-dressed as the nightmarish Aurora Country Estates where Cavendish
is incarcerated in 2012. “We have nearly 80 years between them so the trees and garden would
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be different. The strategy was to add things like foliage for the earlier time that we could then
remove for the plainer exterior, decades later,” notes Hanisch. To further suit the Cavendish
scenes they added a conservatory and a formidable front gate.
Symbolically, Tykwer suggests, “It was once the chateau where Ayrs, the elderly
composer, tries to imprison young Frobisher, and then a lifetime later it’s him, reborn as
Cavendish, who finds himself imprisoned in the place where he used to be the warden.”
It was determined in the film’s conceptual stages that certain spaces should likewise be
repeated from one part of the story to another. “We wanted to be flexible, however,” states
Hanisch. “Sometimes it’s the real place, sometimes just a hint. Our starting point was Ewing’s
cabin under the deck of the ship, and we recreated the shape of this room throughout:
Cavendish’s office, Luisa Rey’s apartment, Frobisher’s room in Ayrs’ mansion, Sonmi’s safe
house and Zachry’s hut.”
Thus, the interior of Ayrs’ opulent musical salon, built on a soundstage, became the
Aurora Country Estates’ depressing dining room. The restaurant where Sonmi works, which
Bateup designed, boasts a cheerful, brightly lit, virtual atmosphere for consumers to enjoy, but
after-hours reveals its grey cavernous reality. “We had to invent a consumer society of 2144 and
imagine what a fast-food restaurant would look like. Lana and Andy have definite ideas about
how they see these periods so we tossed around ideas and eventually came up with the Sonmi
world,” he says. After filming wrapped for those scenes, the space was repurposed in black,
white and red as the rooftop venue for Cavendish’s book reception, where a massive aquarium
pays homage to the virtual fish pond of the restaurant’s floor.
The designers also established reappearing elements such as trains and bridges that figure
in Frobisher’s, Cavendish’s, Luisa Rey’s and Zachry’s storylines. Egg-shaped objects also recur,
from the toys in the factory that Luisa Rey runs through in San Francisco to the restaurant seats
and the recording device of Sonmi’s archivist.
“We wanted our depictions of each era to be clear so there’s no question whether it’s the
1930s or the 1840s,” says Hanisch. “At the same time, visual cues and recycled spaces reinforce
the idea of connections and the continuity of a single story.”
Also responsible for the film’s lush and seamless look were cinematographers John Toll
and Frank Griebe. “The principal visual design elements were in place when we came onto the
film,” notes Toll. “One major goal of the cinematography was to blend the look of the individual
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sequences that spanned 500 years to create an overlapping and rich dramatic feel for the entire
story, but not necessarily by trying to create one specific and detailed look for the whole film.
Basically, this meant a visual approach that was appropriate to each chapter while still
maintaining a sense of continuity throughout.”
After meeting to confer on cameras, lenses and film emulsions, Griebe and Toll left for
their respective locations but kept track of one another’s work via dailies.
Dan Glass, who has worked with the Wachowskis since “The Matrix,” led the visual
effects department for both units. His work is most evident in the two futuristic settings,
particularly the action-driven Sonmi sequences and the simulated atmosphere of the restaurant
where she works, but not a single era missed his touch. He helped Tom Tykwerturn Glasgow
into San Francisco and constructed its fictional Swannekke Power Station. “Tom is accustomed
to shooting with practical locations so we worked more with the physical elements and
augmented them. It was a great approach for the material,” he says.
The scene in which Luisa Rey traverses the Golden Gate Bridge was filmed partly in a
water tank in Cologne and partly on the runway of Germany’s former Tempelhof Airport, where
the stunt cars collide and her Beetle goes over the rail. The remainder, including the span of
bridge and the view of the San Francisco Bay, were digitally rendered.
For 2144 Neo Seoul, the filmmakers imagined a future where increased water levels have
submerged the older portions of the city. “They’ve built vast walls to try to keep the ocean out,
and in some of these areas we created tops of skyscrapers poking up from the water to suggest
buildings deeper beneath,” Glass describes. “Newer parts of the city, where the wealthier people
live, we imagined shooting up from the tops of these ruins. As you descend, you come across a
more grim and grimy world, the place where Chang’s rebellion was born.”
Sonmi’s escape, and the breathtaking clashes between her champion Chang and the
government hit squad that takes them high over Neo Seoul’s skyline and through its depths, were
filmed with green screen and CGI at Babelsberg, where both units finally converged.
COSTUMES, HAIR AND MAKEUP
“I saw something in his ice-blue eyes, something beneath all the years
and the illness. Something familiar.” – Robert Frobisher, 1936
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In addition to outfitting individual characters for their time and station, costume designers
Kym Barrett and Pierre-Yves Gayraud sought to introduce subtle themes of color, pattern and
design that could merge and unite them through their respective timeframes. Barrett, another
“Matrix” alumnus, says, “We chose certain green tones, for example, that appear on several
characters. A triangular 1970s design we found on a shirt from that period we subsequently re-
arranged to become the wallpaper in Sonmi’s safe house. We tried to slip motifs like this into all
the parts of the story to help develop a subconscious flow of imagery.”
Gayraud, marking his third collaboration with Tykwer, bought ready-made garments in
Berlin shops for the Cavendish segments, but the bulk of the wardrobe for the earlier times were
handmade to his specifications, often with authentic vintage fabrics unearthed at Paris flea
markets. For Ayrs’ dressing gown, he used a 1970s fabric with geometric designs reminiscent of
the early 20th
century’s Futurism movement, which he then cut and dyed. Rufus Sixsmith’s rich
waistcoat was made of a fabric from the 1830s, and pays homage to the Adam Ewing period.
“We imagined, for example, that Luisa Rey might have bought a robe from the 1930s
from an antique market,” he says. “The necklace Halle Berry wears as Luisa came from one she
wore as Jocasta in 1936 and reappears again when she’s a party guest in the Cavendish piece.”
Likewise, jewelry-maker Lorenzo Mancianti created the buttons of Ewing’s waistcoat
that catch Dr. Goose’s acquisitive eye, and later resurface as beads around Zachry’s neck. The
buttons had not only to look like an amazing stone, but resemble the Earth seen from space, and
capture a sense of timelessness.
Barrett adopted a minimalist approach to Sonmi’s wardrobe, explaining, “Hers is a
political and emotional journey and Sonmi becomes a mythical icon in Zachry’s future. To make
her real and then transform her into someone who means so much to others, we decided to
present her almost naked. We let her face be the focus.”
In the rugged landscape of Zachry’s world, Barrett’s view was practical. “Living in a
forest, the characters should blend into the greenery for their own survival. I came up with the
idea that they would be a people who knitted and everything would be hand-spun or macramé.
Living with the daily threat of the Kona, they need to be mobile, and a spinning wheel is easy to
pack.”
Collaborating with Barrett and the Wachowskis on the Ewing, Sonmi and Zachry
sequences was hair and makeup designer Jeremy Woodhead. Working with Gayraud and
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Tykwer on the Frobisher, Luisa Rey and Cavendish sequences was his counterpart, Daniel
Parker. Each led their teams in helping alter the ages, and sometimes the genders and ethnicities
of the ensemble cast as they traversed place and time. Their mandate was to change the actors’
appearances without rendering them unrecognizable. Even in the most extreme makeup,
Woodhead recalls, “The trick was in finding that balance, to disguise without obliterating their
natural features.”
Some of the metamorphoses required prosthetics, at which they are both expert, but,
wherever possible, they favored traditional makeup, wigs and hair pieces.
Working on the first and the last portions of the timeline, Woodhead took Tom Hanks
from one extreme to the other. “We wanted Tom to shine through in his final role as Zachry.
With his Dr. Goose character in 1849, I had more leeway to create a ‘character.’ I gave him a
bald cap, thinning ginger hair, sideburns, a false nose and great big teeth. He’s still recognizable,
but a million miles away from the kind, strong, silent Zachry.”
Parker prepared Hanks for his turn as tough-guy Dermot Hoggins, author of Knuckle
Sandwich, saying, “We created a nose that had been massively broken and gave him a shaved
head, scars and tattoos.” Later, as an avaricious hotel manager in 1936, the actor acquired a
mustache, a thickened neck and a bulbous alcohol-soaked nose.
Among Woodhead’s achievements was transforming Hugh Grant into a fearsome
cannibal in white mud wash, a process that, he relates, “took two hours, and included bald caps, a
Mohawk, tattoos, body paints and teeth. It’s unlike anything Hugh has ever done before.”
Additionally, Woodhead prepared Jim Sturgess as Chang in Sonmi’s saga and
transitioned Halle Berry from a Maori to an aged Asian male, to the naturally luminous
Meronym. He also helped Susan Sarandon become the male Suleiman, gave Doona Bae’s
features a western look for her portrayal of Tilda, and helped James D’Arcy and Hugh Grant
assume their Asian roles.
It fell to Parker to turn Hugo Weaving into Nurse Noakes. “Making up a man as a
woman—and vice versa—is always tricky,” he says. “Male bone structure is different from
female, so it takes time to complete. The whole shape of the skull is different. You have to alter
the forehead and the quality of the skin. There are a lot of subtleties that you wouldn’t think
about, but, if they aren’t addressed, will make it obvious that this is a man in drag, and that’s not
what we wanted.”
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Parker also turned Jim Sturgess into a bearded Scotsman, Ben Whishaw into the demure
Georgette Cavendish, Doona Bae into a Hispanic woman working in a factory, and Xun Zhou
into a male hotel clerk. He helped Halle Berry through incarnations as an Indian party guest, the
half-Puerto Rican journalist Luisa Rey, and the European Jocasta, wife of the composer Ayrs.
“This film was an apex for hair and makeup design, a dream job for someone in our line
of work,” says Woodhead. “It’s not going to get any better than this.”
THE CLOUD ATLAS SEXTET
“That’s it. The music from my dream.” – Vyvyan Ayrs, 1936
Tom Tykwer is among a select group of filmmakers who compose music for their own
movies. And, unlike the way films are generally scored, after they are shot and edited, it’s a
process he likes to begin well in advance of filming. Collaborating with Johnny Klimek and
Reinhold Heil, with whom he has scored nearly all his films, Tykwer had the music for “Cloud
Atlas” written and recorded two months prior to principal photography.
“He prefers this to using temporary music by other composers,” Heil explains. “It allows
him to use the temp score without worrying about what will take its place. As the film takes
shape in post-production, we see what’s missing or needs changing and re-record the final.”
“In this way,” Tykwer adds, “the music becomes an atmospheric note or sublevel not
only for the film, but as inspiration to the cast, making the score a part of the experience.”
“The first thing they did at the table read was play the music for the actors and show us
renderings, so we would know the adventure we were going on,” says Hanks. “It was all part of
a fully realized vision that was presented to us from the get-go.”
The composers welcomed their widening circle. Says Klimek, “It was great to get input
from Lana and Andy, who are not musicians but have a sense for using music dramatically.
They stirred our process in the best possible way.”
The music is first the focus of the Frobisher narrative, as the young composer struggles to
complete his life’s work, The Cloud Atlas Sextet, but beyond that, says Klimek, “It’s an ever-
present melody, from a simple string line to a riff in a 1970s rock piece, to a jazz sextet playing
in the background at the Cavendish party. We needed something beautiful and malleable enough
to take us through five centuries.”
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“Lifetimes later, someone who hears it might sense its familiarity,” Tykwer adds,
acknowledging how the score becomes, itself, a part of the larger reincarnation motif. “The
sextet belongs to the period in which it was conceived, the 1930s, in what would be Frobisher’s
modernistic style, but also recurs everywhere and matches so many scenes, becoming the central
theme for the entire film.”
The Cloud Atlas Sextet echoes the composition of the story itself, with all its distinct
pieces, moods and themes rhythmically merging into a whole. Embracing that metaphor,
Tykwer says, “There are lots of subjective voices in the story, and we were searching for one
voice that could encompass them all, to form a beautiful choir.”
Citing a sentiment expressed by the character Adam Ewing, whose adventure opens the
saga in 1849, Andy Wachowski says, “One of the last lines of the film is Adam Ewing saying
‘What is an ocean, but a multitude of drops.’ And when you think of all the people who were
involved, all the favors we called in, all the individuals who contributed to this collective, that’s
really the story of the making of this film.”
“There’s an idea I’ve always liked, that the real nature of immortality is our words and
actions that go on apportioning themselves throughout all of time,” says Lana Wachowski. “It’s
such an intriguing concept and part of what got us to thinking about making this movie. It’s
what we were hoping to capture.”
______________________________________
ABOUT THE CAST
TOM HANKS (Dr. Henry Goose, Hotel Manager, Isaac Sachs, Dermot Hoggins,
Cavendish Look-a-like Actor, Zachry) is an award-winning actor, producer and director. One of
only two actors in history to win back-to-back Best Actor Academy Awards®, he won his first
Oscar® in 1994 for his moving portrayal of AIDS-stricken lawyer Andrew Beckett in Jonathan
Demme’s “Philadelphia.” The following year, he took home his second Oscar® for his
unforgettable performance in the title role of Robert Zemeckis’ “Forrest Gump.” He also won
Golden Globe Awards for both films, as well as a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award®
for the
latter.
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Hanks has also been honored with Academy Award® nominations for his performances in
Penny Marshall’s “Big,” Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan,” and Robert Zemeckis’ “Cast
Away,” also winning Golden Globes for “Big” and “Cast Away.” In 2002, Hanks received the
American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Hanks will next be seen starring as the title character in Paul Greengrass’ “Captain
Philips,” based on real-life Captain Richard Phillips’ encounter with Somali pirates, which is set
for release next October. Slated for release in 2014 is John Lee Hancock’s “Saving Mr. Banks,”
a drama about how the classic film “Mary Poppins” came to be, with Hanks in the role of Walt
Disney.
He most recently portrayed Thomas Schell, alongside Sandra Bullock and Thomas Horn,
in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” Stephen Daldry’s Oscar®-nominated drama set against
the backdrop of 9/11, adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer’s acclaimed novel of the same name.
His other feature credits include the animated adventure “The Polar Express,” which he also
executive produced and which reunited him with director Robert Zemeckis; the Coen brothers’
“The Ladykillers”; Steven Spielberg’s “The Terminal” and “Catch Me If You Can”; Sam
Mendes’ “Road to Perdition”; Frank Darabont’s “The Green Mile”; Nora Ephron’s “You’ve Got
Mail” and “Sleepless in Seattle”; Penny Marshall’s “A League of Their Own”; Ron Howard’s
“Apollo 13,” “The Da Vinci Code,” “Angels & Demons” and “Splash”; and the computer-
animated blockbusters “Cars,” “Toy Story,” “Toy Story 2” and “Toy Story 3.”
Hanks’ work on the big screen has translated to success on the small screen. Following
“Apollo 13,” he executive produced and hosted the acclaimed HBO miniseries “From the Earth
to the Moon,” also directing one segment, and writing several others. His work on the miniseries
brought him Emmy, Golden Globe and Producers Guild Awards, as well as an Emmy
nomination for Best Director.
His collaboration with Steven Spielberg on “Saving Private Ryan” led to them executive
producing the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers,” based on the book by Stephen Ambrose.
Hanks also directed a segment and wrote another segment of the fact-based miniseries, which
won Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Miniseries. In addition, Hanks earned an Emmy
Award for Best Director and an Emmy nomination for Best Writing, and received another
Producers Guild Award for his work on the project.
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In 2008, Hanks executive produced the critically acclaimed HBO miniseries “John
Adams,” starring Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson. It won 13 Emmy Awards,
including the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries, as well as a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries,
and a PGA Award. More recently, Hanks and Spielberg re-teamed for the award-winning HBO
miniseries “The Pacific,” for which Hanks once again served as executive producer. The ten-
part program won eight Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Miniseries, and brought Hanks
his fourth PGA Award.
Hanks most recently executive produced the HBO political drama starring Julianne
Moore and Ed Harris, which follows Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate in his 2008
Presidential campaign. “Game Change” garnered 12 Emmy Award nominations in 2012,
including Best Miniseries. He will next serve as host, narrator and historical commentator for
the two hour National Geographic television movie based on the best-selling book Killing
Lincoln, which is set for release in 2013.
In 1996, Hanks made his successful feature film writing and directing debut with “That
Thing You Do,” in which he also starred. He more recently wrote, produced, directed and
starred in “Larry Crowne,” with Julia Roberts. Under his own Playtone banner, Hanks, together
with his wife, Rita Wilson, and partner, Gary Goetzman, produced 2002’s smash hit romantic
comedy “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” Other producing credits include “Where the Wild
Things Are,” “The Polar Express,” “The Ant Bully,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “Mamma Mia!,”
“The Great Buck Howard,” “Starter for 10” and the HBO series “Big Love.”
HALLE BERRY (Native Woman, Jocasta Ayrs, Luisa Rey, Indian Party Guest, Ovid,
Meronym) is an Oscar®-winning actress who has been honored for her work in both film and
television.
Berry won an Academy Award®, a Screen Actors Guild
® (SAG) Award and the Berlin
Silver Bear Award and was named Best Actress by the National Board of Review for her
brilliant performance as a woman who becomes involved with a racist prison guard in
“Monster’s Ball.” She also earned the Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG® and NAACP Image Award
for her extraordinary portrayal of the actress and singer Dorothy Dandridge, the first African
American to be nominated for an Academy Award®, in HBO’s telefilm “Introducing Dorothy
Dandridge,” which she also produced.
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She previously received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations both for her role as Janie
in “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” adapted from the novel and produced by Oprah Winfrey,
and also for her work as an executive producer on the HBO film “Lackawanna Blues.” For her
starring role in the 2010 biographical drama “Frankie and Alice,” she received a Golden Globe
Award nomination for Best Actress and won an Image Award in the same category. Berry also
earned critical acclaim for her starring role as a widow in “Things We Lost in the Fire,” written
by Sam Mendes and directed by Susanne Bier. In recognition for her achievements as an actress,
the Harvard Foundation at Harvard University honored Berry as Cultural Artist of the Year.
Berry most recently wrapped Brad Anderson’s thriller “The Hive,” starring opposite
Abigail Breslin and Michael Imperioli, and was seen in Garry Marshall’s ensemble romantic
comedy “New Years Eve.”
Berry made her feature film debut in Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever.” She went on to star
opposite Warren Beatty in the socio-political comedy “Bulworth.” Among her additional credits
are starring as Storm in the worldwide hit “X-Men,” “X2,” and “X-Men: The Last Stand”;
“Catwoman”; “Gothika”; starring as Jinx in the James Bond feature “Die Another Day,” which
was then the largest-grossing Bond film in the franchise; “Losing Isaiah,” opposite Jessica
Lange; “Executive Decision”; the live-action film “The Flintstones”; “The Last Boy Scout” and
“The Perfect Stranger,” opposite Bruce Willis; “Strictly Business”; “Boomerang,” alongside
Eddie Murphy; and “Swordfish,” with John Travolta and Hugh Jackman. She also lent her voice
to the role of Cappy in the animated hit “Robots.”
Her additional television credits include the highly rated ABC miniseries “Oprah Winfrey
Presents: The Wedding,” directed by Charles Burnett, and the title role in Alex Haley’s
miniseries, “Queen,” a performance that earned Berry her first NAACP Image Award for Best
Actress, as well as the Best Newcomer Award from the Hollywood Women’s Press Club. She
also starred in Showtime’s original telefilm “Solomon and Sheba.”
JIM BROADBENT (Captain Molyneux, Vyvyan Ayrs, Timothy Cavendish, Korean
Musician, Prescient 2) won an Academy Award® and a Golden Globe Award for his
performance in Richard Eyre’s 2001 biopic “Iris,” opposite Judi Dench. Broadbent’s portrayal
of Iris Murdoch’s devoted husband, John Bayley, also brought him a National Board of Review
Award, as well as Screen Actors Guild Award® and BAFTA Award nominations for Best
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Supporting Actor. In addition, he won a Los Angeles Film Critics Award for his work in both
“Iris” and Baz Luhrmann’s groundbreaking musical “Moulin Rouge!,” also winning a BAFTA
Award for Best Supporting Actor for the latter.
Broadbent earlier won a London Film Critics Circle Award and the Best Actor Award at
the 1999 Venice Film Festival for his portrayal of W.S. Gilbert, of Gilbert & Sullivan, in Mike
Leigh’s “Topsy-Turvy.” Leigh has also directed Broadbent in the acclaimed films “Life is
Sweet,” “Vera Drake” and most recently in the 2010 drama “Another Year.” In 2012,
Broadbent’s performance alongside Meryl Streep in the critically acclaimed drama “The Iron
Lady” earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Broadbent’s additional film credits include “Animals United,” “Perrier’s Bounty, the
worldwide blockbusters “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part II” and “Harry Potter and
the Half-Blood Prince”; Steven Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull”; the fantasy adventure “Inkheart,” the historical drama “The Young Victoria,” the British
independent film “The Damned United”; “Hot Fuzz”; “Art School Confidential”; “The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”; “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and the
sequel, “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason”; Mira Nair’s “Vanity Fair”; “Bright Young
Things,” for director Stephen Fry; “Gangs of New York,” under the direction of Martin Scorsese;
Richard Loncraine’s “Richard III”; Woody Allen’s “Bullets Over Broadway”; “Enchanted
April,” directed by Mike Newell; and Neil Jordan’s “The Crying Game,” to name only a portion.
He was also heard in the animated features “Valiant” “Robots” and more recently, “Arthur
Christmas.”
Honored for his work on television, Broadbent recently won the UK’s Royal Television
Society (RTS) Award for “Any Human Heart,” which also received a BAFTA TV Award
nomination. Previously, he won Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards and garnered an Emmy
nomination for Best Actor for the titular role in the telefilm “Longford.” He had earlier received
Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his performance in the historical HBO movie “The
Gathering Storm.” He was also in the HBO movie “Einstein and Eddington” and has appeared
in more than 40 other television and cable projects, including miniseries, movies and series.
Broadbent studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and has
performed extensively on the stage, most notably with the Royal National Theatre and the Royal
Shakespeare Company.
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HUGO WEAVING (Haskell Moore, Tadeusz Kesselring, Bill Smoke, Nurse Noakes,
Boardman Mephi, Old Georgie) is widely known for his role as Agent Smith in the Wachowskis’
highly acclaimed Matrix trilogy, for his starring role in “V for Vendetta,” and as Elrond in the
award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy. He recently reprised the role of Elrond in “The Hobbit:
An Unexpected Journey,” in theatres in December. The film is the first of three movies Jackson
will direct based on the book The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.
He previously starred as Johann Schmidt/The Red Skull in Joe Johnston’s “Captain
America” and in Johnston’s “The Wolfman,” and “The Keyman.” Weaving’s numerous credits
in voice work include the characters of Megatron in Michael Bay’s blockbuster “Transformers”
and its sequels, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”;
as well as Noctus/Grimble in Zack Snyder’s “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”;
Noah the Elder in George Miller’s award winning “Happy Feet,” and “Happy Feet Two”; and
Rex the Sheepdog in “Babe” and its sequel, “Babe: Pig in the City.”
Weaving is the recipient of four Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards, receiving the
first in 1991 for Best Actor for his portrayal of a blind photographer in Jocelyn Moorhouse’s
breakthrough feature “Proof.” He received a nomination in the same category in 1994 for the
role of Mitzi Del Bra in Stephan Elliott’s “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.”
Weaving won his second AFI Award for Best Actor in 1998 for his role in “The Interview,”
written and directed by Craig Monahan, for which he also received the 1998 Best Actor Award
at the World Film Festival in Montreal. In 2005, his role in the critically acclaimed “Little Fish,”
opposite Cate Blanchett and Sam Neill, earned Weaving his third AFI Award for Best Actor. In
2012, he was honored with his fourth AFI Award, for Best Supporting actor, for his role in
“Oranges and Sunshine,” opposite Emma Watson and David Wenham, which also received the
Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Weaving’s extensive stage credits include roles in the Sydney Theatre Company’s “Uncle
Vanya,” opposite Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh; “Hedda Gabler,” opposite Cate
Blanchett; “Riflemind,” directed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman; and numerous productions with
Sydney’s acclaimed Belvoir St Theatre, including “The Alchemist” and “The Popular
Mechanicals,” with Geoffrey Rush.
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JIM STURGESS (Adam Ewing, Poor Hotel Guest, Megan’s Dad, Highlander, Hae-Joo
Chang, Adam/Zachry’s Brother in Law) recently completed production on Giuseppe Tornatore’s
“The Best Offer,” starring opposite Geoffrey Rush, and “Ashes,” starring opposite Lesley
Manville. Later this year, he will also star opposite Kirsten Dunst in the sci-fi fantasy “Upside
Down.”
His other recent credits include Lone Scherfig’s “One Day,” opposite Anne Hathaway;
Zack Snyder’s “Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”; Philip Ridley’s critically
acclaimed UK release "Heartless" ; and Peter Weir's fact-based “The Way Back,” starring
opposite Colin Farrell and Ed Harris.
Sturgess was previously seen in Kari Skogland's award-winning independent film “Fifty
Dead Men Walking,” starring opposite Sir Ben Kingsley in the drama based on Martin
McGartland's shocking real life as an undercover spy who infiltrated the IRA. The film
premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival and Sturgess was nominated for the
2009 Vancouver Film Critics (VFC) Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Canadian
Film.
He also starred in Robert Luketic's 2008 box office hit “21,” alongside Kate Bosworth
and Kevin Spacey; “The Other Boleyn Girl,” opposite Natalie Portman; and with Evan Rachel
Wood in Julie Taymor’s critically acclaimed film “Across the Universe.”
Sturgess was nominated as the Best Newcomer by the Empire Film Awards in 2009.
DOONA BAE (Tilda, Megan’s Mom, Mexican Woman, Sonmi-451, Sonmi-351, Sonmi
Prostitute) has become a very familiar name in Korea in a short amount of time and is widely and
critically acclaimed for her film and television work. “Cloud Atlas” marks Bae’s first English
language film.
In 2000, she was honored with a Best New Actress Blue Dragon Award for her role in
“Barking Dogs Never Bite,” directed by Bong Joon-ho. Her other films include leading roles in
“Take Care of My Cat,” directed by Jung Jae-un, and Park Chan-wook’s “Sympathy for Mr.
Vengeance,” which both garnered her several festival awards and the AKOFIC Best Actress
Awards in 2001 and 2002. She also received a Director’s Cut Actress of the Year Award for her
performance in “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” in 2002, and again in 2006 for Bong Joon-ho’s
“The Host.”
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Bae also played lead roles in the Japanese films “Linda, Linda, Linda,” directed by
Nobuhiro Yamashita, and Koreeda Hirokazu’s “Air Doll.” For the latter, she was honored in
2010 as Best Actress at the Japanese Academy Awards, and in the same category at the Tokyo
Sports Movie Awards, Takasaki Film Festival, and Japan Professional Film Awards.
Already famous as a model in the Korean fashion industry, Bae made her screen debut in
the film “Ring” and subsequently played the lead in the Korean TV series “The School.”
BEN WHISHAW (Cabin Boy, Robert Frobisher, Store Clerk, Georgette, Tribesman)
reunites with Tom Tykwer for the third time, having previously starred in the lead role of Jean-
Baptiste Grenouille in Tykwer’s “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, ” based on the acclaimed
novel, for which he received the BAFTA Rising Star Nomination in 2007. He also starred
alongside Clive Owen and Naomi Watts in Tykwer’s action thriller “The International.” He will
next be seen in November as Q in the latest installment of the James Bond franchise, “Skyfall,”
starring Daniel Craig and Judi Dench.
Among his other feature film credits are “My Brother Tom,” for which he received a
British Independent Film Award in 2001 for Most Promising Newcomer in the title role; and
“I’m Not There,” portraying a young Bob Dylan, for which he was honored in 2008 by the
Independent Spirit Awards’ prestigious Robert Altman Award, shared with director Todd
Haynes and the cast, including Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Richard Gere and Heath Ledger.
Most recently he was in Julian Jarrold’s “Brideshead Revisited,” and Julie Taymor’s “The
Tempest,” opposite Helen Mirren and Russell Brand.
Whishaw’s television performances include “Criminal Justice,” for which he received
both a 2009 Emmy Award for Best Performance by an Actor and the Royal Television Society,
UK (RTS) Award for Best Male Actor, in addition to a BAFTA TV Award nomination. His
other television performances include “Nathan Barley,” BBC’s “The Hour,” and most recently
the lead, alongside James Purefoy and Patrick Stewart in the BBC’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s
“Richard II.”
For the stage, Whishaw received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for his
performance as Hamlet in Trevor Nunn’s electric youth version of Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark
Materials,” at the Old Vic, having made his West End debut at the National Theatre in their stage
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adaptation. He also appeared at the National Theatre in Katie Mitchell’s 2006 version of “The
Seagull,” and 2008’s “The Idiot,” in which he played the lead.
A native of Hertfordshire, Whishaw graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
in 2003. Prior to drama school, he played supporting roles in the 1999 films “The Trench,”
directed by William Boyd and Michel Blanc’s “Mauvaise Passe.” After graduation he went on
to appear in Roger Michell’s “Enduring Love,” the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel;
Matthew Vaughan’s “Layer Cake”; “The Booze Cruise”; and portrayed Keith Richards in
“Stoned.”
JAMES D’ARCY (Young Rufus Sixsmith, Old Rufus Sixsmith, Nurse James, Archivist)
will next be seen alongside Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel
playing the role of Anthony Perkins in “Hitchcock,” which follows the making of the famed
director’s “Psycho”; as well as the dramas “The Philosophers,” written and directed by John
Huddles, and “The Domino Effect.”
His most recent film credits include the independents “In Their Skin,” a thriller which
premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April; the comedy “Overnight”; and Madonna’s
historically based romance “W.E.,” in which he portrayed King Edward VIII, starring opposite
Abbie Cornish and Andrea Riseborough.
Among Darcy’s previous features are the drama “Screwed”; “Rise: Blood Hunter,”
starring Lucy Liu; “An American Haunting,” with Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland; Renny
Harlin’s “Exorcist: The Beginning”; Peter Weir’s “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the
World,” starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany; “Dot the I,” with Gael García Bernal and Tom
Hardy; and William Boyd’s war film “The Trench,” starring Daniel Craig.
D’Arcy graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in July 1995,
and quickly became a popular face on British screens with lead roles as Nicholas Hawthorne in
Ruth Rendell’s “Bribery and Corruption,” Lord Cheshire in “The Canterville Ghost” and
Jonathan Maybury in “The Ice House.” His additional television credits include the BBC hit
miniseries “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling”; “Sherlock Holmes: Case of Evil”; the
television series “POW”; and Stephen Whittaker’s “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas
Nickleby.” More recently, he starred as Tom Bertram in “Mansfield Park,” opposite Billie Piper,
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Hayley Atwell and Blake Ritson, and he has also had a recurring role in the hit series “The
Secret Diary of a Call Girl.”
In 2002, D’Arcy was nominated for the prestigious Ian Charleson Award for his portrayal
of Piers Gaveston in Michael Grandage’s production of “Edward II” at the Crucible Theatre,
where he performed opposite Joseph Fiennes and Lloyd Owen.
XUN ZHOU (Talbot/Hotel Manager, Yoona-939, Rose) is one of Asia’s most acclaimed
and admired actresses and the only Chinese actress to have won all the major Chinese-language
film awards, including China’s Hundred Flowers Awards, the Hong Kong Film Awards and
Hong Kong’s Golden Bauhinia Awards, Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, and Asian Film
Awards, among others. Her performances have made her a household name in greater China and
earned her many accolades abroad.
She has performed in art house classics such as “Suzhou River,” “The Little Chinese
Seamstress” and “The Equation of Love & Death,” to such blockbuster hits as “Perhaps Love,”
with Takeshi Kaneshiro, Shakespeare’s “The Banquet,” starring Ziyi Zhang, “Painted Skin,”
with Donnie Yen, “The Message,” and “Confucius,” with Chow Yun-Fat.
More recently Zhou appeared alongside Michelle Yeoh in “True Legend” and recently
completed filming on “The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate,” with Jet Li, and “The Great
Magician,” with Tony Leung.
Zhou has become a champion for the environment and the Earth, pioneering “green
living” in China. In 2008, she was appointed United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP)
first national Goodwill Ambassador and initiated “Our Part,” an environmental awareness
campaign to influence China’s youth. For her continued efforts, UNDP honored her with the
Champions of the Earth Award in April 2010. She was the only female award winner of the
year, and the first winner from the entertainment industry.
In 2011, Zhou was elected as one of the Young Global Leaders by World Economic
Forum and spoke at the Summer Davos in Dalian, China.
KEITH DAVID (Kupaka, Napier, An-Kor-Apis, Prescient) has over 150 film, television
and stage credits to his name. Among his on-screen feature film roles are Oliver Stone’s
Academy Award®-winning “Platoon”; Clint Eastwood’s “Bird”; Paul Haggis’ Academy
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Award®-winning “Crash”; “There’s Something About Mary”; “Armageddon”; “Pitch Black”;
“The Chronicles of Riddick”; “Requiem for a Dream”; “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”; and “Barbershop.”
On television, David’s role in “The Tiger Woods Story” earned an Emmy Award
nomination. His other projects include TVOne’s “Belle’s” and NBC’s “The Cape,” guest-
starring arcs on “ER” and “7th Heaven” and appearances on “Law & Order” and “CSI.”
He has also been honored for his voice work, including Emmy Awards for Ken Burns’
“The War” and “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson,” and an Emmy
Award nomination for “Jazz.” David also lent his voice to the jazz singing, evil nemesis Dr.
Facilier in “Princess and The Frog,” released in December 2009, and the Black Cat in
“Coraline.” Internationally known as the voice behind Goliath from “Gargoyles” and the title
character in the “Spawn” animated series, he also voices Vhailor in the video game “Planescape:
Torment,” The Arbiter in “Halo 2,” and the wildly popular “Call To Duty: Modern Warfare 2.”
His other voiceover credits include A&E‘s “City Confidential,” U.S. Navy television
commercials, and the voice of Los Angeles’ 94.7 The WAVE’s smooth jazz.
On stage, the Juilliard voice and theatre student garnered a 1992 Tony Award nomination
for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his role in the classic Broadway play “Jelly's Last
Jam.” Some additional stage credits are: Sarah Pia Anderson’s revival of “Hedda Gabler” and
Lloyd Richards’ original Broadway staging of the late August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars.”
A native New Yorker, the accomplished singer/songwriter has his own band, which
currently performs with symphonies and orchestras across the country.
DAVID GYASI (Autua, Lester Rey, Duophysite) was most recently seen in the World
War II film “Red Tails,” based on John B. Holway’s Red Tails, Black Wings: The Men of
America's Black Air Force, starring Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. In 2005, he
portrayed Hutu school worker Francois, alongside John Hurt and Hugh Dancy in Michael Caton-
Jones’ “Beyond the Gates,” which chronicles BBC news producer David Belton’s experience in
a genocide-ridden Rwanda.
In addition to his many appearances on British television series he has also played
leading roles in the hit BBC One series “White Heat,” opposite Sam Claflin, Claire Foy and
Reece Ritchie, and ITV’s “Mike Bassett: Manager.”
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Gyasi trained at Middlesex University, studying arts and drama. In 2008, he took to the
stage in the National Theatre’s multi-award winning production of “War Horse,” playing the role
of Captain Stewart.
SUSAN SARANDON (Madame Horrox, Older Ursula, Yusouf Suleiman, Abbess )
brings her own brand of fierce intelligence to every role she plays, from her acclaimed, fearless
portrayal in “Bull Durham” to her Oscar®
-nominated performances in “Atlantic City,” “Thelma
& Louise,” “Lorenzo’s Oil” and “The Client,” to her Academy Award®-winning and Screen
Actors Guild (SAG) Award®
-winning work in “Dead Man Walking.”
Sarandon has also been honored for her distinguished work in television. Among her
numerous accolades, she recently received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead
Actress in a Miniseries for her role in the HBO film “Bernard and Doris,” as well as Golden
Globe and SAG® Award nominations in the same category. In 2010, Sarandon received Emmy
and SAG®
nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her role opposite Al Pacino in
HBO’s “You Don’t Know Jack,” directed by Barry Levinson. Her other HBO miniseries include
“Mussolini: The Decline and Fall of Il Duce,” opposite Bob Hoskins and Anthony Hopkins, and
James Lapine’s “Earthly Possessions,” based on the Anne Tyler novel.
Her more recent performances include the films “Jeff, Who Lives at Home”; “Wall Street
2: Money Never Sleeps,” for director Oliver Stone; and Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones.”
Sarandon also appeared on Broadway in 2009 in “Exit the King” with Geoffrey Rush, and in
Gore Vidal’s “An Evening with Richard Nixon.” She received critical acclaim for her Off-
Broadway turn in “A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talkin’” and the thriller
“Extremities,” and also appeared Off-Off-Broadway in the moving post-September 11th stage
play “The Guys.”
Among Sarandon’s additional feature credits are the Wachowskis’ “Speed Racer,”
“Enchanted,” Mr. Woodcock,” Paul Haggis’ “In the Valley of Elah,” Romance and Cigarettes,”
Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown,” “Alfie,” “Shall We Dance?,” “Moonlight Mile,” “The
Banger Sisters,” “Igby Goes Down,” “Cradle Will Rock,” “Step Mom,” “Twilight,” “Safe
Passage,” “Little Women,” “Bob Roberts,” “Light Sleeper,” “White Palace,” “A Dry White
Season,” “The January Man,” “Sweet Hearts Dance,” “The Witches of Eastwick,”
“Compromising Positions,” “The Buddy System,” “The Hunger” and “King of the Gypsies.”
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Sarandon made her acting debut in the movie “Joe,” which she followed with a
continuing role in the TV daytime drama “A World Apart.” Her early film credits include “The
Great Waldo Pepper,” “Lovin’ Molly,” Billy Wilder’s “The Front Page,” the 1975 cult classic
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and Louis Malle’s controversial “Pretty Baby.”
In addition to her many on-screen credits, she lent her vocal talents to the animated
features “Rugrats in Paris,” “James and the Giant Peach,” and “Cats & Dogs,” and has provided
the narration for many documentaries, including Laleh Khadivi’s “900 Women,” about female
prison inmates.
Her other television credits include starring in “Ice Bound” as Dr. Jerri Nielson, based on
Nielson’s real life survival story; as Princess Wensicia Corrino in the Sci Fi Channel miniseries
“Children of Dune”; “The Exonerated,” directed by Bob Balaban; and “Women of Valor.” She
has also made guest appearances on “The Big C,” “30 Rock” and in the highly popular “Mother
Lover” video on “Saturday Night Live.”
HUGH GRANT (Rev. Giles Horrox, Hotel Heavy, Lloyd Hooks, Denholme Cavendish,
Seer Rhee, Kona Chief) is an award-winning actor who has received acclaim for his work in a
wide range of films, which have grossed more than $2.5 billion combined worldwide. He most
recently lent his voice to the lead role of The Pirate Captain in the animated film “The Pirates!
Band of Misfits,” and starred in “Did You Hear About the Morgans?”
His other credits include “Music and Lyrics”; “American Dreamz”; “Bridget Jones’s
Diary” and its sequel, “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason”; the ensemble comedy hit “Love
Actually”; and “Two Weeks’ Notice.” He won a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA for his
performance in “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” and was nominated for Golden Globes for his
performances in “Notting Hill” and “About a Boy.” Among his many feature film credits
are “An Awfully Big Adventure,” “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a
Mountain,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “Mickey Blue Eyes,” “Small Time Crooks,” and “Extreme
Measures,” which he also produced.
In addition to his Golden Globe and BAFTA honors, Grant has been awarded The Peter
Sellers Award for Comedy, Best Actor at The Venice Film Festival and an Honorary César
Award.
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An active supporter of the Hacked Off campaign, Grant’s other interests include art,
football, golf and cars.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
THE WACHOWSKIS (Writers/Directors/Producers) were born and raised in Chicago
and have been working together for more than 30 years. They wrote, directed and produced
“Speed Racer” and “The Matrix” trilogy. They also produced “Ninja Assassin,” and wrote and
produced “V for Vendetta,” for director James McTeigue.
In 1996, they wrote and directed their first feature film, “Bound.”
TOM TYKWER (Writer/Director/Producer/Composer) is one of Germany’s most
exciting filmmakers. In 1999, he made his international breakthrough with the adrenaline-fuelled
“Run Lola Run,” which, as well as directing, he also wrote and composed. The film, starring
Franka Potente, was both a commercial and critical success, going on to become the most
successful German film of that year.
He followed this with “The Princess and the Warrior,” again starring Franka Potente, and
then with his first English-language film, “Heaven,” starring Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi.
In 2006, Tykwer co-wrote and directed “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” starring Ben
Wishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman and Rachel Hurd-Wood, a sumptuous and provocative
adaptation of the seminal book. His next film was the sleek thriller “The International,” with
Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. Most recently he completed the German language film “3”
(“Drei”).
Tykwer’s earlier films include “Winter Sleepers” and his feature film directorial debut,
“Deadly Maria.”
DAVID MITCHELL (Novel) is the author of Cloud Atlas. Published in 2004, his
celebrated third novel was a Man Booker Prize finalist.
Mitchell’s most recent novel, the international bestseller The Thousand Autumns of Jacob
de Zoet was named a best book of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Financial Times, The
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New Yorker, The Globe and Mail, and The New York Times, and his 2006 novel, Black Swan
Green, was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by Time.
His first novel, Ghostwritten, was awarded the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys
Prize for best book by a writer under thirty-five and was short-listed for the Guardian First Book
Award. Number9Dream, published in 2001, was short-listed for the Man Booker as well as the
James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Mitchell was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2007.
He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.
GRANT HILL (Producer) was recently nominated for an Academy Award® for Best
Picture for Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life.”
His previous producing credits include “Ninja Assassin,” “Speed Racer,” “V For
Vendetta” and “The Thin Red Line,” for which he was nominated for an Academy Award® for
Best Picture.
He was a co-producer on “Titanic” and an executive producer on “The Matrix
Revolutions” and “The Matrix Reloaded.”
STEFAN ARNDT (Producer) has produced more than 20 films, receiving 30 German
Film Awards, ten European Film Awards, 13 Bavarian Film Awards and one César Award.
In 1994, Arndt founded the production company X Filme Creative Pool with Tom
Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker and Dani Levy, where he is currently managing director. Under this
banner he has produced Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon,” which was nominated for an
Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film and received a Golden Globe Award for Best
Foreign Film, European and German Film awards, and the 2009 Cannes Palme D’Or. More
recently, he was a producer on “Quellen des Lebens,” by Oskar Roehler, and “Amour,” by
Michael Haneke, which won the Palme D’Or at Cannes this year.
Arndt began his film career running a movie theatre in Berlin in the ‘80s, during which
time he met Tom Tykwer. He subsequently produced Tykwer’s feature directorial debut,
“Deadly Maria,” as well as “Winter Sleepers,” “Run Lola Run,” “The Princess and the Warrior,”
“Heaven” and “3.” He has also produced Wolfgang Becker’s “Life Is All You Get” and the
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successful “Goodbye Lenin.” His other producing credits include Dani Levy’s “Silent Night,”
“The Giraffe” and “The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler.”
In 2000, Arndt founded X Verleih AG, together with Manuela Stehr, to distribute films in
Germany.
From 2003 to 2009 Arndt was chairman of the German Film Academy, which he was
also instrumental in founding, as well as a member of the board of the Allianz Deutscher
Produzenten Film & Fernsehen (Association of Production Companies), an organization that
supports the interests of filmmakers in Germany.
PHILIP LEE (Executive Producer) holds a Bachelor of Arts in Directing from the
College of Arts at Nihon University in Japan, a Diploma in Management of Executive
Development from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a Master of Fine Arts in Producing
from The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Doctorate in Business Administration from Hong
Kong Polytechnic University.
From 1987 to 1993, Lee ran the Production Department at Salon Films Hong Kong.
While at Salon Films, he was the Asian unit production manager on more than 20 Hollywood
films and numerous television productions, including the features “Dragon: The Bruce Lee
Story” and “M. Butterfly,” and the television series “Around the World in Eighty Days.”
After returning to Asia in 1996 from his studies in the United States, Lee received
associate producer or line producer credits for his work on successful feature films such as Chen
Kaige’s “The Emperor and the Assassin,” Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” Zhang
Yimou’s “Hero,” Ronny Yu’s “Fearless,” Jan de Bont’s “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of
Life,” and Rob Minkoff’s “Forbidden Kingdom.” He was also the executive producer for
Korean director Kwak Jae-yong’s “Windstruck.” In 2008, he served as line producer for the
Hong Kong portion of Chris Nolan’s “The Dark Knight.”
Lee financed and produced Chinese director Xie Dong’s “One Summer with You,” which
received the Best Asian Film Award at 2007’s Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival.
In 2007 Lee set up Javelin Pictures, a production company based in Beijing, as a vehicle
to produce viable cross-cultural film projects.
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UWE SCHOTT (Executive Producer) has been Managing Director at X Filme Creative
Pool GmbH since October 2009.
He previously served as Managing Partner of Modern Media Filmproduktion GmbH,
which made numerous TV productions, as well as Managing Director of various film funds
responsible for the accurate execution of American productions such as “Walk the Line,” “The
Fast and The Furious,” “Star Trek XI” and many others, and representing German producers
with his production company, Oberon.
Born in Dusseldorf, Schott worked as a unit manager and later as production manager for
various German production companies before serving as a line producer for several productions
in Los Angeles. He then returned to Germany where he was a producer and managing director at
various production companies.
WILSON QIU (Executive Producer) is the Chairman and CEO of Dreams of The
Dragon Pictures Co., Ltd. Once a public servant in Chinese government, he ventured into
industrial investment in 2001 and subsequently initiated the Dreams of The Dragon Film Fund
and drafted film projects.
His main theatrical works include serving as producer on “Adventure of the King” and
“Heaven Eternal, Earth Everlasting” in 2010, and “The Man Behind the Courtyard House” in
2011.
The company’s upcoming projects include “The Old Summer Palace,” an epic film in
two parts, featuring a romance during a disaster event, and the Asian remake of “Les uns et les
Autres (Within Memory),” which was nominated for the Palme d’Or and won Technical Grand
Prize in 1981 at the Cannes Film Festival.
JOHN TOLL (Director of Photography) is one of only two cinematographers to win
consecutive Oscars®: for “Legends of the Fall” in 1994 and for “Braveheart” in 1995. He was
also nominated for an Oscar® for his work on “The Thin Red Line” in 1998. Toll has been
nominated for five American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Awards and has won two. He
is also the recipient of a BAFTA Award and a New York Film Critics Circle Award.
Toll’s most recent credits include “It’s Complicated,” starring Meryl Streep, Alec
Baldwin and Steve Martin; “The Adjustment Bureau,” starring Matt Damon; and “The Odd Life
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of Timothy Green,” starring Jennifer Garner. He is currently in production on “Iron Man 3,”
starring Robert Downey Jr.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Toll began his career as a camera operator on such films as
“The Last Waltz,” “Norma Rae” and “Urban Cowboy.” His additional credits as director of
photography include “Wind,” “The Rainmaker,” “Almost Famous,” “Captain Corelli’s
Mandolin,” “Vanilla Sky,” “The Last Samurai,” “Elizabethtown,” “Seraphim Falls,” “Rise,”
“Gone Baby Gone,” “Tropic Thunder” and “The Burning Plain.” He also served as director of
photography on the pilot episode of the acclaimed AMC television series “Breaking Bad,” for
which he received an Emmy Award nomination.
FRANK GRIEBE (Director of Photography) has received numerous accolades for his
work as a cinematographer, including the German Film Award in Gold and the European Film
Award for Best Cinematographer for his work on Tom Tykwer’s “Perfume: The Story of a
Murderer.”
He was also awarded the German Film Prize for Tykwer’s “Run Lola Run” in 1999 and
again in 1998 for “Winter Sleepers.” In addition, Griebe photographed Tykwer’s “The Princess
and the Warrior,” for which he was nominated for the 2001 European Film Awards, and
“Heaven,” which garnered a German Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography,
as well as nominations for a German Camera Award and European Film Award. His more
recent collaborations with Tykwer were “The International” and “3 (Drei),” which premiered at
the 2010 Venice Film Festival.
Among his many other credits are “Trains’n’Roses,” which earned him a German Film
Award; Sebastian Schipper’s directing debut, “Gigantics”; Doris Dörrie’s “Naked”; and Leander
Haussmann’s “Berlin Blues.” Recently, he shot Helmut Dietl’s “Zettl,” and the documentaries
“Play Your Own Thing: A Story of Jazz in Europe,” “A Summer’s Fairytale” and “Longing for
Beauty.”
Born in Hamburg, Griebe began his career as an apprentice film processor. From 1984 to
1986 he trained to become a state-recognized camera assistant and subsequently spent seven
years working with cameramen such as Herbert Müller, Michael Teutsch, Jürgen Jürges and
Erling-Thurmann Andersen on film and television productions, documentaries and commercials.
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His many honors include the 1993 Kodak Prize, the 1994 German Camera Prize and the 1995
student prize at the Manaki Brothers Camera Festival in Bitola.
ULI HANISCH (Production Designer) is one of the top production designers working in
Germany today and was awarded the Bavarian, German and European Film Awards for Best
Production Design in 2007 for his work on Tom Tykwer’s “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.”
Previously, he collaborated with Tykwer on “Winter Sleepers,” “The Princess and the
Warrior,” ”Heaven” and his latest film, “3” (Drei).
In 2001, Hanisch designed “The Experiment,” for which he was awarded the German
Film Prize for Best Production Design. In 2008, he went to Budapest to design the medieval
horror feature “Season of the Witch,” starring Nicolas Cage. Most recently, he designed the
period comedy “Hotel Lux,” directed by Leander Haussmann. In 2011, Hanisch designed his
first theatre production at the Volksbühne in Berlin, also directed by Haussmann.
Hanisch was born in Nuremberg. While studying visual communication in Düsseldorf, he
worked as a graphic designer for advertising agencies. In 1987, he began his collaboration with
Christoph Schlingensief on his experimental films, including “The German Chainsaw Massacre,”
“Terror 2000” and “United Trash.” Among his many other credits, Hanisch designed for
Germany’s exceptional comedian Helge Schneider’s “00-Schneider – Jagd auf Nihil Baxter” and
“Praxis Dr. Hasenbein”; Sönke Wortmann’s “Das Wunder von Bern”; and the historical tragedy
“Stauffenberg,” for German television.
He was the art director on such films as “Aimée & Jaguar” and “Schlaraffenland,” and
worked in the art department for such major European productions as Peter Greenaway´s “The
Baby of Macon” and “Tykho Moon,” by Enki Bilal.
Hanisch has also been teaching at the production design education program at the
International Film School (IFS) in Cologne for nearly a decade.
HUGH BATEUP (Production Designer) has been a supervising art director on numerous
productions, including The Wachowskis’ “The Matrix Reloaded,” ”The Matrix Revolutions”
and “Speed Racer,” and Bryan Singer’s “Superman Returns.” “Cloud Atlas” marks his first
feature film as production designer.
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Bateup began his career in the film industry as a construction laborer in his native
Australia, on the film “The Man from Snowy River.” He worked in this capacity and, later, as a
construction manager on Australian TV shows and feature films.
In 1989, he landed his first job as an art director on “The Big Steal.” He continued for a
decade in this role on more than 15 Australian and foreign films, including “Muriel’s Wedding,”
“Angel Baby,” “Cosi” and “The Matrix.”
ALEXANDER BERNER (Editor) previously collaborated with Tom Tykwer on the
period thriller “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” for which he won a German Film Award for
Best Editing. In 1996, Berner won his first German Film Award for his editing work on the film
“Schlafes Bruder” (“Brother of Sleep”) and the documentary “Wie die Zeit Vergeht” (“As the
Time Passes”).
He most recently edited Paul W. S. Anderson’s action adventure “The Three
Musketeers,” starring Mila Jovovich and Matthew MacFadyen. Berner previously edited
Anderson’s “AVP: Alien vs. Predator” and “Resident Evil.” Among his other film credits are
“The Debt,” starring Helen Mirren”; Roland Emmerich’s “10,000 B.C”; “The Calling”; and
“Prince Valiant.”
Born and raised in Munich, Berner spent time in Israel and later London, where he
trained in computer graphics and then worked as a film and video editor at New Decade
Productions Ltd. He concentrated on corporate films, documentaries and commercials,
eventually working on music videos for MTV. After directing a documentary about a multi-
cultural rock band in San Francisco in 1988, Berner returned to Germany to work as a sound and
picture editor.
KYM BARRETT (Costume Designer) began her career in the theater as a set and
costume designer. After designing costumes for her first film, “Romeo + Juliet,” she came to the
United States where she designed for the feature “Zero Effect,” and was subsequently hired by
the Wachowskis for their worldwide blockbuster “The Matrix” trilogy. She also collaborated
with them on “Speed Racer.”
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Among her other credits are “Three Kings,” “Red Planet,” “From Hell,” “Gothika,”
“Monster-in-Law,” “Rumor Has It...,” “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” “Green Hornet” and,
most recently, “The Amazing Spider-Man.”
The Metropolitan Opera’s production of “The Tempest” marks Barrett’s second
collaboration with Robert Lepage. She previously designed costumes in 2011 for his Cirque Du
Soleil’s “Totem.”
PIERRE-YVES GAYRAUD (Costume Designer) is one of France’s most sought-after
costume designers with over 40 films to his credit. He is perhaps best known in the U.S. for two
large-scale productions, Regis Wargnier’s Oscar®
-winning “Indochine” and Doug Liman’s “The
Bourne Identity.”
As the costume designer on Tom Tykwer’s “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” he won
the German Film in Gold Award for Best Costume. He went on to design two segments of the
episodic “Paris, je t’aime” for Tykwer and the Coen brothers.
His other notable feature film credits include “Total Eclipse,” directed by Agniezka
Holland and starring Leonardo Di Caprio; Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Two Brothers,” starring Guy
Pearce; and “The Countess,” directed by Julie Delpy, who also starred with William Hurt.
More recently he designed the costumes for the 3D film “The Three Musketeers,”
directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich and Orlando Bloom; Rodrigo
Garcia’s “Albert Nobbs,” starring Glenn Close; and Charlie Stratton’s upcoming “Therese
Raquin,” starring Elizabeth Olsen, Jessica Lange and Tom Felton.
DAN GLASS (Visual Effects Supervisor) joined Method Studios in 2010 as Senior
Creative Director overseeing both feature and commercial projects and in 2011 was appointed
Executive Vice President for Method’s global network of visual effects studios with offices in
Los Angeles, Vancouver, New York, London, Sydney and Melbourne.
“Cloud Atlas” marks his fifth collaboration with the Wachowskis, having previously
supervised visual effects on “The Matrix: Reloaded,” for which Glass won a Visual Effects
Society Award, “The Matrix: Revolutions,” “V for Vendetta” and “Speed Racer.”
For his work on Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster “Batman Begins,” Glass received both
BAFTA and Saturn Award nominations for Best Visual Effects. He most recently was a Senior
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Visual Effects Supervisor on Terrence Malick’s Oscar®
-nominated “The Tree of Life,” which
also won the Palme D’Or at Cannes.
After completing a degree in architecture at University College London, Glass began his
career at the Computer Film Company in London, serving in various capacities as a designer, CG
artist, programmer and compositor. Among his many credits are “Mission: Impossible,”
“Mission: Impossible II,” “The Beach,” “Sleepy Hollow,” “The Bone Collector,” “Notting Hill,”
and “Tomorrow Never Dies.”
TOM TYKWER (Composer) See Writer/Director/Producer entry above.
JOHNNY KLIMEK (Composer) previously collaborated with Tom Tykwer on the
breakthrough hit “Run Lola Run,” “The Princess and the Warrior,” “Perfume: The Story of a
Murderer,” “The International” and “3” (Drei). These scores, along with much of his output over
the last decade, were created in collaboration with his former longtime creative partner, Reinhold
Heil.
Among his recent credits are “Killer Elite” and the TV series “Awake.” Up next is “I,
Frankenstein,” starring Bill Nighy and Aaron Eckhart, slated for release in February, as well as
the documentary “Open Heart.”
Klimek previously scored “One Hour Photo,” “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days,” “Land of
the Dead,” “The Cave,” “Blood and Chocolate,” “One Missed Call,” “Blackout,” and
“Tomorrow, When the World Began.”
He has also scored more than 30 episodes of the acclaimed TV series “Deadwood,” and
composed the theme song for “Without a Trace.” His additional television credits include
“Locke and Key,” “John from Cincinnati,” and “Iron Jawed Angels.”
Born in Australia, Klimek paid his dues in a series of gritty pub bands before migrating to
Berlin to form the ‘80s pop ensemble “The Other Ones” with his siblings. He segued into the
club music scene on his own in the ’90s, and, out of the latter emerged his creative marriages to
both Heil and Tykwer. The worldwide success of the “Run Lola Run” score catalyzed his move
to Los Angeles and the establishment of his Echo Park studio. Since then, he has seen a steady
stream of cinematically striking projects.
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REINHOLD HEIL (Composer) was born in a small town in West Germany and trained
to become a classical pianist. While studying at the Berlin Music Academy, Heil became Nina
Hagen’s keyboardist, co-writer, and co-producer and for the next few years honed his craft in
what became the legendary Nina Hagen Band. After Hagen left the group, the remaining band
members formed Spliff, one of Germany’s most successful rock bands of the 1980s.
In the mid-1990s, Heil became friends with Australian Johnny Klimek, later joining
creative forces with him to compose a number of hybrid trip-hop tunes. The two then
collaborated with Tom Tykwer, joining him in scoring his second feature, “Winter Sleepers.”
Two years later the trio scored “Run Lola Run,” their breakthrough hit with a pioneering high-
energy electronic score which brought them to the attention of Hollywood.
In addition to their lasting creative association with Tykwer, spanning six previous films,
most notably “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” and “The International,” Heil and Klimek
have collaborated on dozens of film and television scores. These include the award-winning
music video director Mark Romanek’s “One Hour Photo,” starring Robin Williams; the Golden
Globe-nominated film “Iron Jawed Angels” and the series “Deadwood” and “John From
Cincinnati” for HBO; cult horror film director George Romero’s “Land Of The Dead”; “Sophie
Scholl: The Final Days,” which was nominated for an Oscar® for Best Foreign film; action
thriller “Killer Elite,” starring Jason Statham, Robert De Niro and Clive Owen; and last season’s
NBC series “Awake.” They also wrote the theme and scored numerous episodes of the
television series “Without A Trace,” for which they won seven ASCAP Awards.
Heil continues to collaborate with Klimek on selected projects while working primarily
as an individual composer.