If you're one of the hordes of people for whom the phenomenal Cloud Atlas trailer makes you want to pick up the book (by David Mitchell), then my evangelical advice would be do, do (do)...you'll be rewarded with one of the most audacious and kaliedoscopic plot structures you've ever come across. That is, unless you've read his Ghostwritten...but that's another story...and probably another film given the public reaction the Cloud Atlas trailer has elicited.

Don't get me wrong, the book's equal parts rewarding and frustrating, but dazzling it definitely is. The extended trailer below does a pretty accurate job of showcasing exactly the stylistic virtuosity of the book and will certainly leave you wondering how any author (let alone director) could manage to weave together these diverse strands into a cohesive tale.

Time will tell whether the Wachowskis will manage to translate this dizzyingly genre-defying tale onto the big screen in a way that steers away from John Carter-esque territories. The trailer's a good indicator that the studio hasn't (yet) compromised on their vision in order to sell a film that clearly won't be an easy sell. Clearly, given a cast that includes Tom Hanks and Halle Berry (not to mention the Wachowskis' old-time collaborator Hugo Weaving and cameos by Susan Sarandon and Hugh Grant) there's some money behind the film.

With ILM heading up the roster of effects houses working hard ahead of the October 26 release date, you'd have to ask - with this cast, budget, directors and VFX muscle behind it - whether anything could go wrong for Warner Brothers with Cloud Atlas. Well, you only have to look as far as Matrix Reloaded for one possible answer to this question, but all signs are good that the current extended trailer's lack of compromise (on actually telling the story of the film) has been a success, so let's hope it brings the astonishingly formidable grandeur of the book to the screen.

I'd read the book now though, just to err on the side of caution. If, like me, you're a fan of captivating, puzzling, audacious works of fiction, you won't be disappointed.

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