The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer are currently working on an adaptation of Cloud Atlas starring Halle Barry, Hugh Grant, Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy, and Jim Sturgess.  As someone who has not read the David Mitchell's book, it sounds very exciting.  Mitchell tells six stories that span multiple continents and centuries.  All the actors all playing multiple roles.  The Wachowskis are directing one unit, Tykwer is directing a second unit in parallel.  It's all very ambitious stuff, and I am glad the Wachowskis still have the power to get this made after Speed Racer flopped.

The first official image from production on Cloud Atlas has surfaced.  I do not understand what's going on within, but it has readers of the book excited.  Hit the jump to check it out.

Empire includes an explanation of the props with the image:

If you know the book, you'll also recognise props from the six interlinking tales. We've spotted the VW Beetle of crusading journo Luisa Rey (Berry), the '70s thriller that should inject serious voltage into the film's middle act (if you really know the book, you'll spot that it's drab green not rust orange).

Also on display are a pair of Chatham Island totems, a piano belonging to the composer of the 'Letters from Zedelghem' chapters, some dystopian gadgetry from near-future Korea, and a cart that we're guessing gets used to carry post-apocalyptic veggies around Hawaii.

All Greek to me.  Guess I'll just have to read the book before the expected late 2012 release.

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That's Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, and Andy Wachowski in the center.  Mitchell is seated in the background, surrounded by producers on the film.

Here is the synopsis for Mitchell's Cloud Atlas:

A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified “dinery server” on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation -- the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other’s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small. [Amazon]

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