Though it managed to eventually make an impressive $107 million worldwide, Cloud Atlas was a sad entry in the box office of 2012, an expensive and beautiful passion project that divided critics and was roundly rejected by American audiences. Even the poor movie's Blu-ray release has been pushed back all the way to May, and fans of the film will be gritting their teeth at Sunday's Oscars watching films with less beautiful scores and cinematography take home prizes.
But despite the financial failure of Cloud Atlas the Wachowskis are moving on style, putting together what might be an even more ambitious sci-fi project, Jupiter Ascendng. With Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Les Miserables star Eddie Redmayne and Sean Bean attached in the cast, they've got the star power to get attention, and now Deadline writes that they've secured some extra money to make it happen. Australia's VIllage Roadshow will be teaming with Warner Bros. to finance the film, in which Kunis plays a low-ranking human who is targeted for assassination by the alien queen of the universe. Yeah, that sounds like the kind of story that could use a little extra money to happen.
It's a relief to see the Wachowskis still pushing forward on yet another ambitious and massive movie, and I hope that the lukewarm reception to Cloud Atlas doesn't dampen the heartfelt and fiercely independent streak they've fostered since well before their Matrix breakthrough. Whether or not Cloud Atlas worked for you it's hard to deny their passion and singular voices (well, as singular as two separate humans can be). And if more of you actually go to see Jupiter Ascending than Cloud Atlas, we can hopefully count on more from them in years to come.
