By Sterling Wong
As ambitious big-budget projects get shut down or postponed indefinitely, one high-concept movie will finally begin shooting in less than a month’s time...but only with a reduced budget.
The Wachowski brothers and German director Tom Tykwer start work on "Cloud Atlas," the adaptation of David Mitchell’s prodigious novel, in mid-to-late September in Germany after a delay in financing negotiations. The film’s budget had been touted as somewhere around $100 million to $120 million in the past, but producer Stefan Ardnt confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that it will be "definitely lower" than that.
'Cloud,' which stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Hugo Weaving, spans several centuries, from 19th century Australia to a post-apocalyptic Hawaii, and follows six distinct yet ultimately interlocking storylines. The expansiveness of the saga undoubtedly presents the directing trio with the complicated challenge of bringing it all onto the big screen in coherent fashion (and with less than a 14-hour running time).
Ardnt is confident the trio has worked out a solution, saying, “"Many have called the novel unfilmable, but Tom [Tykwer] and the Wachowskis have found a way to tell these stories in an amazing, linear and very cinematic way."
The Wachowskis and Tykwer have come up with a savvy method to split directing duties: They will shoot this sci-fi epic in parallel with two separate teams. We’re guessing the Wachowskis will be bringing their forward-looking "Matrix" vision to the futuristic parts of the film, while Tykwer will take charge of the period storylines.
With the reality of a weak global economy and lofty, big-budget fare like "Cowboys & Aliens" underperforming at the box office, it seems like the way to go forward for high-concept projects is to reign in the spending and go creative, as the Wachowskis and Tykwer will be doing. We'll find out how this project ends up looking next year, as the trio is aiming for a Summer 2012 release.
Tags Cloud Atlas, Tom Tykwer, wachowskis
Prepare for your comedic worlds to collide: Johnny Knoxville and Patton Oswalt are teaming up for an as-yet untitled comedy.
by Uptin Saiidi
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There are many arguments for various alternate endings for the "
The folks over at Alcon Entertainment don't want you to be worried about 
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'Woman In Black' Trailer Commentary: Beware, Daniel Radcliffe!
Posted 8/22/11 9:00 am EST by Josh Wigler in Commentary, Trailers, Video
"What she wants is unknown, but she always comes back: the specter of darkness, 'The Woman in Black.'"
Now, if that haunting nursery rhyme echoed by a young child's voice doesn't send shivers down your spine, perhaps you don't have a pulse — or perhaps you're just a wee bit jaded by the horror movie scene.
Frankly, MTV News deputy managing editor Eric Ditzian and yours truly, Movies Blog editor Josh Wigler, had a hard time figuring out which way we were feeling about that very question while recording our recent commentary on the "Woman in Black" trailer, which you can watch in the video above.
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Tags daniel radcliffe, The Woman in Black