Tom Hanks: Cloud Atlas will shock

Tom Hanks has said Cloud Atlas will shock audiences, but he is proud to be part of such a ground-breaking film.

The Oscar-winning actor stars alongside Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw and Susan Sarandon and others playing mutiple roles, spanning centuries in the film based on the best-selling novel by David Mitchell.

Tom said: "There are going to be people out there who are going to say, 'Who do they think they are to make this movie like this?' That's been the case with every great film. They said the same thing about The Cabinet of Dr Caligari in the silent days.

"I think every audience is yearning to be surprised. I am bored when I walk into the theatre expecting A, B and C, and a movie delivers A, B and C. I want to see something brand new that I never anticipated coming a hundred million miles away. And my God, that happens before the words 'Cloud Atlas' appear up on the screen on this one."

The film is co-directed by American siblings Lana and Andy Wachowski, creators of The Matrix films, who wrote the screenplay and directed Cloud Atlas with German filmmaker Tom Tykwer, of Run Lola Run fame.

Halle Berry confessed she was more worried about the multiple directors than playing several roles, including a man, before she started filming.

She said: "I was most frightened about that, thinking, oh God, how's it going to be with three directors? Am I going to be confused? Who do I listen to, and what's it going to be like?

"But it was none of that. They spent so many years talking about it, honing their ideas and figuring it all out, they were very much on the same page."