First look: Tom Hanks’ dramatic tough-guy transformation

Oh, dear! Has that nice Tom Hanks fallen in with a bad crowd? Don't worry, Ma! He's only acting.

Hanks stars in the highly anticipated "Cloud Atlas" opposite Halle Berry. The film, based on the acclaimed novel by David Mitchell, gives Hanks the chance to play several different roles, one of which is a tough guy who looks a bit like the lead singer of Color Me Badd.

Buzz on the epic -- part science fiction, historical adventure, and romance -- is building. Yahoo! searches for "cloud atlas" spiked 211% and lookups for "cloud atlas trailer" doubled.

The book sprawls centuries and takes so many leaps across time and space that many thought filming it would be next to impossible. Apparently next-to-impossible is not the same as impossible (just ask Tom's goatee). The movie hits theaters this fall.

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