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Back in October it was announced that Johnny Depp would star in a film called Transcendence. The film is being produced by Christopher Nolan and directed by his long time cinematographer Wally Pfister. There's been no details on what the film is about until now, and it sounds awesome!
According to The Wrap, Depp plays a scientist whose brain is uploaded into a supercomputer creating the world’s first machine that can think for itself. The plot was confirmed by the film's producer Andrew Kosove. He also confirmed that the heart of the story contains themes of singularity, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence.
The site explains that the story revolves around three scientists, Max and a husband and wife team, Will and Evelyn, who "have been developing a programming code for the world’s first fully self-aware computer." Here's a more detailed breakdown of the film,
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.
That sounds like it's going to make a badass film, and now we know why Nolan and Depp have attached themselves to the project. The other two roles have not been cast but Ewan McGregor, Tom Hardy, and Kate Winslet have been approached but none of them were able to commit due to scheduling conflicts so the filmmakers are still on the hunt. We previously heard that Christian Bale was in the running for one of the characters, but there's no word on where that currently stands.
