"Cloud Atlas" production notes [PDF] - VisualHollywood

CLOUD ATLAS (2012) PRODUCTION NOTES 

CLOUD ATLAS 

Production Notes 

Release Date: October 26, 2012 (2D theaters and IMAX) 

Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures 

Director: Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski 

Screenwriter: Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski 

Starring: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, 

James D’Arcy, Xun Zhou, Keith David, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant 

Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi 

MPAA Rating: R (for violence, language, sexuality/nudity and some drug use) 

Official Website: CloudAtlasmovie.com 

STUDIO SYNOPSIS: "Cloud Atlas" explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one 

another throughout the past, the present and the future. Action, mystery and romance weave dramatically 

through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero and a single act of kindness ripples across 

centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future. 

© 2012 Warner Bros. Pictures 1

Synopsis 


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 twotime 

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 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. 

"Cloud Atlas" is rated R by the MPAA for violence, language, sexuality/nudity and some 

drug use. 

www.cloudatlasmovie.com 



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 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 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." 

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 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 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 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 readthrough, 

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 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 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. 

"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; Koreanborn 

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, 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. 

"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. 

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." 

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. 



"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 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 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 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 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 Tykwer turn 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 

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 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." 

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 postproduction, 

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." 

"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 Looka-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. 

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. 

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. 

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 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. 

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. 

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." 

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 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 Garcia 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, 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 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." 

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." 

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 Cesar Award. 

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 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 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. 

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 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 nomina- 


tion. 


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 Mueller, Michael Teutsch, Jürgen Jürges and Erling-Thurmann 

Andersen on film and television productions, documentaries and commercials. 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 

Volksbuehne in Berlin, also directed by Haussmann. 

Hanisch was born in Nuremberg. While studying visual communication in Duesseldorf, 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. 

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." 

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 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. 

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.

"Cloud Atlas" production notes [PDF] - VisualHollywood

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