VOTD: Tom Tykwer And Andy And Lana Wachowski Introduce And Explain 'Cloud Atlas'

The biggest conversation piece online yesterday was the long trailer for Cloud Atlas, the adaptation of David Mitchell's novel co-written and co-directed by an unlikely trio: Tom Tykwer, and Andy and Lana Wachowski.

Along with the trailer came something we linked yesterday, but which is worth highlighting in its own right: a video introduction from the three writer/directors, in which they explain their attraction to the material and the difficulty they had in getting it made.

For those who've paid attention to the career of the Wachowskis, this is a pretty notable thing, as the siblings are notoriously camera-shy. There are very few video interviews with them; and this is the first video featuring them to be released in many years. (The last one I remember hit around the time of the debut of The Matrix, in '99.) That makes it worth a look right there.

I love that video, because their excitement for the film really comes through, even as the jumbled editing tries to underline the difficulty inherent in adapting a novel built out of six interconnected stories that cross genre lines and span a centuries-long timeline.

And if you missed the Cloud Atlas trailer, you can find it here, where I also attempt to explain how a lot of the seemingly disparate footage fits together in that nearly six-minute first look.