A couple of months ago we learned that Johnny Depp would be taking the starring gig in acclaimed cinematographer Wally Pfister's directorial debut, Transcendence. Like Christopher Nolan, the man whose films he made look gorgeous for a long time, Pfister kept details on it close to the vest, although details started to leak out that it was a bigger budgeted sci-fi film about an evil artificial intelligence. Turns out that was partially true, but there's a lot more to it than that.
The Wrap spoke to producer Andrew Kosove, who revealed that the story revolves around three scientists. Depp will play Will, a scientist who has his brain uploaded into a supercomputer in order to create the world's first machine capable of thinking for itself. The other two scientists are Evelyn and Max, who have yet to be cast, but we know Christian Bale has been targeted, along with James McAvoy. Ewan McGregor and Tom Hardy apparently turned it down for scheduling reasons, and Kate Winslet was approached for the Evelyn role but can't find the time.
There's a more detailed breakdown of the plot below, and it's a touch spoilery, so if you don't want to know then best stop here. Transcendence is slated to begin production in February for a planned IMAX release.
According to the summary, a group of anti-technology terrorists
assassinate Will, Evelyn uploads his brain into a prototype
supercomputer. Although she at first finds the experiment seems to have
gone wrong, before too long Evelyn finds Will responding in computer
form.She goes on to connect Will to the Internet so he can help make further scientific breakthroughs. Will asks Evelyn to connect a microphone and a camera up to the computer so he can see and speak to her as well.
Will creates a backup of himself to every computer in the world, and furthers his work through accessing online indexes. (Kosove told TheWrap this plot point is no longer in the script.) When the anti-technology organization finds out, they try to steal the supercomputer and destroy it, but Will no longer needs the computer to survive.
