TIFF RED CARPET: The very long Cloud Atlas draws a suitably long list of stars

By John Semley | September 9, 2012

By John Semley | 09/09/2012

Cloud Atlas, based on David Mitchell’s expansive sci-fi tome, attempts nothing less than to prove the existence of love and reincarnation, all in a nine-hour (give or take) sci-fi drama set across time and space (okay, it’s 164 minutes). It’s ambitious, and faintly ludicrous. It also has some major stars, many of whom play several—up to six!—roles across the film’s numerous timelines. So the red carpet premiere was packed, to say the least. Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Susan Sarandon, Keith David, Doone Bae, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw and, like, a half-dozen other stars appeared. (Sadly, Hanks arrived without any of the fun facial hair configurations he wears in the film.) Ubiquitous man-about-fest Joseph Gordon-Levitt (not actually in the film) dropped by too. The directing trio of Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski also padded out a red carpet marathon that, as long as it was, was still nowhere near as long as the very, very, very, very long Cloud Atlas.