A Company Boards 'Cloud Atlas' (Cannes)

9:01 AM PDT 5/10/2011 by Scott Roxborough

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Berlin production house joins X Filme, Anarchos Pictures on Tom Hanks starrer.

CANNES - Berlin-based A Company has boarded Cloud Atlas, the big-budget adaptation of David Mitchell's best-selling novel starring Tom Hanks and being co-written and co-directed by Matrix filmmakers Andy and Lana Wachowski and Run Lola Run writer-director Tom Tykwer.

WB and Focus International to Distribute 'Cloud Atlas,' Starring Tom Hanks

A Company will co-produce the picture together with Tykwer's X Filme and Anarchos Pictures and, through sales arm EEAP, will take rights in Russia and Eastern Europe for the film.

Mitchell's book follows six storylines, jumping from 19th century American to 1970s California, a near post-apocalyptic future in Hawaii.

"This project has everything - fantasy, big adventure, sci-fi, that will really appeal to audiences in Russia and Eastern Europe," said A Company topper Alexander van Dulmen. "But it also has a story to tell. If this project works, I think it will show that more intelligent movies can be made, that there is a market for them."

Shooting on Cloud Atlas is set to start this September. Warner Bros. is distributing Cloud Atlas in North America. Focus Features is handling international sales and will be pushing the film to buyers in Cannes.