Hugo Weaving’s IMDB page boasts such mouthwateringly villainous roles as Agent Smith, Megatron and the Red Skull. But according to the actor, he’s about to add six new characters to his resume, though they’re all part of one film.
The movie, in question, is Cloud Atlas, an adaptation of David Mitchell’s sci-fi novel that tells six-separate-yet-somehow-interlocked stories that stretch through opposing times and spaces. Weaving joins Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon and Jim Broadbent for a production that’s being co-directed by his Matrix collaborators Lana and Andy Wachowski, as well as the visually creative Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola, Run).
"That's a project that's really exciting because all the actors will be playing more than one role," Weaving told the Herald Sun while promoting the film Oranges and Sunshine in Australia. "I actually have six characters in the same film and they are all different people in six different stories."
Seeing as how Atlas tells a science-fiction story, accepting such a narrative schism shouldn’t require a leap of faith. And the fact that the Atlas team is going with gifted character actors like Weaving, Hanks, Sarandon and Broadbent gives me hope that all six stories will hold out interest. The film currently has a May 4, 2012 release date, so we’ll bring you more information on this intriguing film as it develops.
