Jim Sturgess on for Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer's Cloud Atlas

He's currently breaking Anne Hathaway's heart over the course of 20 years in One Day , and Jim Sturgess has now joined the adaptation of Cloud Atlas .

The novel is one of a countless number tagged 'unfilmable' over the years, but it looks like the the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer ( Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer , Run Lola Run ) are going to give it a damned good go.

The cast already includes Tom Hanks and Halle Berry. Plotwise, Cloud Atlas follows six interconnected stories from the 19th Century to the far-flung future.

It's understood that the Wachowskis will be tackling the future-set sections while Tykwer simultaneously oversees the period pieces, in what's expected to be one of the most expensive German-funded movies ever.

Sturgess, who hasn't yet broken into the mainstream like one might have predicted, spoke to The Playlist about Cloud Atlas :

"lt’s an amazing book… You really gotta stick with it…because when it all starts falling into place it’s pretty amazing.

"[ All the actors ] play a few characters, it’s very clever what [ the directors are ] gonna try and do. I’m really really really excited about it.

"I think it’s going to be bonkers, it’s either going to work or it’s not. I’m really excited to see if we can pull it off, because it’s ambitious what they want to do.

"And it’s nice, you feel like no one’s ever done that in a film before, it’s like rep theater on a sort of giant movie scale."

Cloud Atlas is expected to open late in 2012.

Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.