This is a break from reality diary. Sometimes you gotta take in a little distraction to get your head clear. This is about the book and soon-to-be-released movie called Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.
The Trailer is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Tom Hanks and Halle Barry are beautifully cast together, the trailer is at the bottom of this diary.
Cloud Atlas was a book released in 2004. It was a very well received book in England even though it had a very unusual format. It consisted of 5 stories that spanned over 500 years of time, from the early 18th century in the south pacific to futuristic korea and finally in Hawaii several hundred years after the collapse of civilization.
It was, admittedly, a difficult read as each wonderfully written story would stop at the midpoint and the next story would begin, only to be interrupted again by another story, at a different time and filled with different characters.
except one character in each of the stories had the same birthmark/tattoo.
soon you began to realize that this was a revolutionary book, with characters and accents so convincing you had to believe that the author had intimate experience in each location/activity, from sailing a 1700's era schooner to composing a harmonic symphony, to speaking an indigenous futuristic hawaiian form of pidgin.
The real clincher for me was the fact that even though some stories involved the two characters taking advantage and harming each other and others involved them becoming lovers or simply co-conspirators, their intimate tie flowed seamlessly through many lifetimes. And the playfulness of how time holds no sway over the human spirit in heaven or dreams is a common and romantic theme.
When the book was done I could only give a breathless, "thank you".
this was because part of the creation of the story actually involved me, personally.
I had the great fortune to meet the Author while he was researching book in Hawaii. I was one of the people who had the fortune to show him around the island. At his request I took him up to mauna kea summit and that trip was an integral part of his story and now, his soon to be blockbuster movie.
I found him to be kind, quiet, thoughtful and above all respectful. The compassion and respect for the human condition in his book and the values shown in the movie transcend race/class/gender roles and is truly a modern classic that, I believe will be landmark in helping us to see more clearly how inherently valuable every human is to each other and this planet.
The screenplay for the move was adapted from the book by the brother-sister director team, (used to be brother/brother team before the gender transformation.Lana and Andy Wachowski, creators of The Matrix and "V" for Vendetta.
it was also co-directed by Tom Tykwer, director of Run Lola Run.
for some reason, even though the studio spent over 100 million dollars making this film it is not being promoted on the television or banners/other advertisements. Possibly because of the subtle but real humanistic and spiritual themes in the movie? I don't know. . .
UPDATE 1: Apparently it isn't being promoted in MY market but others are seeing the movie trailers on T.V.
UPDATE 2: So glad you can read this on the community spotlight, hope you enjoy it!
The new film from the siblings Lana and Andy Wachowski, co-directed with Tom Tykwer, is an adaptation of the novel “Cloud Atlas.” Their model was “2001: A Space Odyssey,” a movie they first saw as children.
Here is the trailer, enjoy!
movie release date is Friday October 26.
ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!
9:04 PM PT: Here are the directors talking about the making of the movie, I had not seen this before writing this blog but I think it is really worth it if you want to understand how magical the entire process is and what the directors are trying to accomplish with this story.
Enjoy!