Let the classy time-jumping begin: First look at Tom Hanks in Cloud Atlas

Tom Hanks is barely recognisable in the trailer for Cloud Atlas. Picture: Universal Source: Supplied

IS that guy in the weird goatee really Tom Hanks? And why is Hugo Weaving dressed like a leprechaun?

Matrix directors the Wachowskis are finally letting the world have a look at their ambitious adaptation of David Mitchell's multi-generational novel Cloud Atlas.

The results are breathtaking: we get to see a sailing ship steaming across the sea, Halle Berry in a slow-motion car crash, and a future with flying cars and clones.

The film, which boasts an all-star casts including Hanks, Hugh Grant and Susan Sarandon, has been shrouded in secrecy and until now all anyone has seen of it are a couple of production sketches.

The six-minute trailer and 20 photos have been released and they show the scale and scope of the story, which spans six different time periods, from 1850 to a post-apocalyptic future.

Hanks plays various characters, from a balding, tubby gangster-type with an angular goatee to a ragged man struggling to survive in a barren wasteland.

Weaving, who played Agent Smith for the Wachowskis in The Matrix, also turns up in various creepy guises.

The trailer jumps around quite a bit and is maddeningly confusing in places, so here a few photo highlights.

 

Cloud Atlas

Source: Supplied

Cloud Atlas

Source: Supplied

Cloud Atlas

Source: Supplied

Cloud Atlas

Source: Supplied

Cloud Atlas

Source: Supplied

Cloud Atlas, which is co-directed by Run Lola Run's Tom Tykwer, is set for release in October.

via heraldsun.com.au