Before we'd even seen footage from
Cloud Atlas, we knew that co-writers and co-directors
Tom Tykwer,
Andy Wachowski, and
Lana Wachowski had given their cast a challenge: each actor would play multiple characters in the six interconnected stories that make up the film. Not only that, but actors would be, in some cases, playing characters of different gender and/or race than the actor's own.
The long debut trailer for the film showed ...