December 6th.

Should TOH be correct, that’s when us members of the general public (not necessarily you or I, specifically) will be able to see Cloud Atlas, the dangerously ambitious, time-and-location-and-people-and-logic spanning collaboration between the Wachowski siblings and Tom Tykwer. Although I think they really mean December 7th — i.e., unless Warner Bros. wants to open a movie on a Thursday — we’re more or less certain as to when the film can finally unspool in theaters.

But, since we already could have made a (generally) educated guess about Cloud Atlas‘ opening, I’m far more intrigued by something that, otherwise, would be of less interest: the running time. The adaptation of a roughly 530-page book needs time — particularly, one that goes all over time and space with a multitude of actors — but this thing is still going to leave a mark, having officially clocked in at two hours and 44 minutes.

None of us can determine if that’s a good fit, though I’d rather have the proper time to settle into David Mitchell‘s world and explore everything to its appropriate extent; even if there’s some fat, we might be covered. Now we just need to find out if Tykwer, the Wachowskis, and their collective cast — Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, and Bae Doona among them — actually fulfilled that task.

Are you more confident about Cloud Atlas, knowing it’s got plenty of room to breathe?