Cinematic Adaptation of Cloud Atlas

Cinematic Adaptation Assignment-1 By: Kunal Manchanda \MOVIE: Cloud Atlas Author of Book: David Mitchell Directors of Movie: Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski

When the book was first published in 2004, it was considered unfilmable mainly because of its structure which relates six different timelines which are set in completely different environment and written in different style: mystery, thriller, sci-fi and fantasy. But Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer and Andy Wachowski decided to take the risk and they adapted it in such a way that looked nothing like what was mentioned in the book but at the same time it justifies the book completely. In the assignment all the difference and similarity between the book and the novel are discussed in brief. THREE MAJOR CHANGES Chronology In the book, Mitchell had a particular order, stories nested within each other. Book followed this typical order

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The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing o Letters from Zedelghem  Half Lives: The first Luisa Rey mystery  The ghastly order of Timothy Cavendish  An Orison of Sonmi-451  Sloosha’s crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ after  An Orison of Sonmi-451  The ghastly order of Timothy Cavendish  Half Lives: The first Luisa Rey mystery o Letters from Zedelghem The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing.

Each character in these timeline reads the story of previous one through a book or letters or manuscript or futuristic gadget. Mitchell begins Cloud Atlas with the earliest

chronological story — The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing — and then moves forward from there, cutting off each story at the halfway point. That structure holds until the final story — Sloosha’s Crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ After — which is told as one piece. After it concludes, the book advances backwards chronologically, telling the second half of each story until it finally ends with Adam Ewing again. But the director made a bold decision to ditch the book’s order by chopping them and then freely mixing them which are linked...