Embarking on his feature directorial debut, Wally Pfister has employed one of the key tactics he’s learned from his many years working with friend and collaborator Christopher Nolan: secrecy. Until now, much of the project was shrouded in mystery, but with a spring release date and a marketing campaign now getting rolling, the shroud is being lifted.
EW has snagged the first images from “Transcendence” and they’re … not quite transcendent, but certainly eyebrow-raising. With the movie centered around the subject of “singularity,” Pfister hopes the tech-bent of his story will resonate. “It’s a very timely subject as we find we have to update the software on our cell phones before we can even make a call,” he told the magazine. But what is it actually about? Well the official synopsis has been revealed too (via Bleeding Cool):
Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is the foremost researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence, working to create a sentient machine that combines the collective intelligence of everything ever known with the full range of human emotions. His highly controversial experiments have made him famous, but they have also made him the prime target of anti-technology extremists who will do whatever it takes to stop him.
However, in their attempt to destroy Will, they inadvertently become the catalyst for him to succeed—to be a participant in his own transcendence. For his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany), both fellow researchers, the question is not if they can…but if they should.
Their worst fears are realized as Will’s thirst for knowledge evolves into a seemingly omnipresent quest for power, to what end is unknown. The only thing that is becoming terrifyingly clear is there may be no way to stop him.
Intrigued? Co-starring Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, Paul Bettany, Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy, this one arrives on April 18, 2014, which means a trailer any day now.
