Earlier we reported that Hugo Weaving was set to star in Cloud Atlas, the feature adaptation of David Mitchell's novel from Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer. The cast also includes Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Tom Hanks and Halle Berry. It was also reported that each each actor would be playing multiple roles. In a recent interview, Weaving confirmed that he will be playing a total of 6 roles in the epic film.

Here is what he had to say:

In August, he will take his acclaimed production of Uncle Vanya, with Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh and Jacki Weaver, to Washington DC. After that, he will head to Berlin to reunite with the Wachowski Brothers, directors of the Matrix films, for their big screen version of the acclaimed novel Cloud Atlas, co-starring Academy Award winners Tom Hanks and Halle Berry. “That’s a project that’s really exciting because all the actors will be playing more than one role,” Weaving says. “I actually have six characters in the same film and they are all different people in six different stories.”

Here’s the synopsis of the book:

The story presents six narratives that evoke an array of genres, from Melvillean high-seas drama to California noir and dystopian fantasy. There is a naive clerk on a nineteenth-century Polynesian voyage: and aspiring composer who insinuates himself to the home of a syphilitic genius: a journalist investigating a nuclear plant: a publisher with a dangerous best-seller on his hands: and a cloned human being created for slave labour. These five stories are bisected and arranged around a sixth, the oral history of a post-apocalyptic island, which forms the heart of the story.

The project is reportedly one that will make audiences think, much like Christopher Nolan's Inception. It will be very interesting to see how the Wachowski's and Twyker handle the multiple narratives in various time periods. Cloud Atlas is expected to begin shooting in September, with Warner Bros. planning a 2012 release.

What are your thoughts on this news? Are you excited for this film?