Filmonic
September 17, 2011

Filming is currently under-way on Cloud Atlas, the movie adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel, and we have our first look at Halle Berry and Hugo Weaving on the set. Filming in the middle of Glasgow, Scotland was bound to attract attention, especially if you’ve transformed a street into 1970s California.

The movie follows six storylines ranging from the South Pacific in the 19th Century to California in the 1970s to a post-apocalyptic future, and each actor will be playing multiple characters. In this storyline Halle Berry is playing Luisa Rey, a journalist in the 70s who discovers that a much hyped local nuclear power plant is not as safe as it seems.

 From the set images it looks like Keith David is playing Joe Napier, a former cop who helps Luisa Rey, and Hugo Weaving is playing Bill Smoke, a contract killer hunting Rey down. I’m thinking Weaving will play the villain characters in each storyline, having had a lot of experience as the bad guy in movies such as The Matrix and Captain America.

Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) is directing this segment along with two others, while The Wachowskis (The Matrix, Speed Racer) will handle three other storylines set in the present and future. Other than Berry, Weaving and Keith David the movie also stars Tom Hanks, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, David Gyasi, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon, Chinese actress Zhou Xun and South Korea’s Doona Bae.

You can see more action from the set over at The Daily Mail, Hugonuts and Carly’s Diary.