Filmonic
September 1, 2011

While most of Cloud Atlas will be shot in Berlin starting later this month, The Wachowskis (The Matrix) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) will also be needing other locations for the movie, which follows six storylines ranging from the South Pacific in the 19th Century to California in the 1970s to a post-apocalyptic future.

Today STV reports that production will be heading to Glasgow, Scotland (which said goodbye to Brad Pitt and World War Z this week), and there is a casting call for extras in Majorca (a popular tourist island off the coast of Spain).

Generally news of shooting locations doesn’t interest me that much, but with the cast of Cloud Atlas playing multiple roles (mixing race and gender) this information is helping us to unravel who is playing who.

STV says Halle Berry and Tom Hanks will film in Glasgow between 16 – 18 September and on 26 September. This pretty much confirms Berry will be playing Luisa Rey, a journalist in 1970s California who discovers that a much hyped local nuclear power plant is not as safe as it seem (expect corruption, car chases and murder). Hanks could be playing a number of characters in this story, but he will likely be Joe Napier, a former cop who helps Luisa Rey.

Meanwhile the Majorca Film Commission has sent out a casting call looking for over 200 extras, with the first request asking for men, woman and children of all ages. This is likely for the sixth story which is set on the island of Hawaii in 2321 where life has reverted to the days of tribal living after most of humanity dies during “The Fall”. Zachry, a tribesman, is visited by Meronym (Berry), a member of the last remnants of technologically-advanced civilization.

They also request men between the ages of 25 and 45 with slightly long hair and scruffy beards to play sailors, as well as body doubles for Jim Sturgess and Jim Broadbent. This points towards the story of Adam Ewing in 1850, a lawyer visiting the Chatham Islands off the coast of New Zealand who witnesses the colonization and conversion of the Maori.

The ambitious Cloud Atlas doesn’t have a release date yet, but Warner Bros. will be aiming for a late-2012 or early 2013 release.