David Mitchell is basically one of the best writers working right now. Beautifully written, always entertaining and with a breadth of imagination that’s truly rare, his work, from debut “Ghostwritten” to latest novel “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet” (which we’re tearing through at the moment), is more or less outstanding. Considering how cinematic his novels can be, it’s almost surprising that his work is yet to be adapted for the screen. At least it would be, were it not for the immense scope of many of his books. For instance, “Cloud Atlas,” the book he’s best known for, has six main characters, and spans thousands of years and several genres, and would seem unfilmable to most.
That hasn’t stopped Tom Tykwer from giving it a try, however. The “Run Lola Run” director revealed at the beginning of last year that he was attempting to write an adaptation of “Cloud Atlas” with The Wachowskis producing. It seems like he’s succeeded to some degree, as Production Weekly have revealed that the project’s moving towards a production start next spring, and that offers may have gone out to a rather exciting cast.
Apparently, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, James McAvoy, Ian McKellen and Natalie Portman have all been offered parts in the project, which, assuming it’s legit (and Production Weekly are usually fairly reliable — we confirmed their “Deadpool” story recently, although some doubt’s been thrown on their report of an offer for David Yates on “The Hobbit”) and that everyone signs on, would mark a remarkably star-studded ensemble. /Film reported in January 2009 that Portman might be involved to some degree, which would seem to back this up. Fans of the book can probably take a guess at who would play who.
We imagine that, if this turns out to be legit, official confirmation will follow in the coming days and weeks, although it’s again important to note that these are only offers; there’s no sign if any of the actors will actually commit. Their schedules for next year are relatively clear, though, (McKellen would obviously be involved in “The Hobbit,” but Gandalf is absent for large chunks of that story, so we’re sure he could fit it in somewhere) and if Tykwer’s captured the source material in his script, it’d certainly be an attractive proposition for any actor.